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HISTORY 



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MENTAL GT^OY^XH 



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MANKIND. 



BY 



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JOHN S: HITTELL. 



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VOLUME I. 



♦ ♦ 



San Francisco: 

printe;d for the author. 

i88q. 




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Entcred Accordinq to Act of Congress m the Year isse, by 
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, d, C. 



PREFACE. 

The Delphic maxim, that " to understand man as he is, 
we must' know what he has been,"^ is not less true of 
him as a species than as an individual. In studying our- 
selves, we should take into account, not only what we 
thought and did as children, but also what our remote 
ancestors and relatives did, in the ruder phases of cult- 
ure. We cannot obey the Socratic command, "know 
yourself," without comparing ourselves with other men, 
not only those near us but also those far from us, in 
space, time, and intellectual condition. In so far as we 
do not understand other men, in so far we do not under- 
stand ourselves. Everything human interests us ; and 
all the main features of human life, even in the lowest 
savages and fiercest barbarians, are highly instructive to 
us. The aboriginal Australians, the Bushmen, the Fue- 
gians, and the Eskimos are our brethren, possessing the 
like feelings and passions with ourselves, and differing 
from us mainly in education, inherited drill, and property. 
They enable us to see what we might have been under 
different circumstances. The most repulsive customs, — 
constant warfare, torture and mutilation of prisoners, 

(3) 



PREFACE. 



cannibalism, human sacrifice, witch-burning, religious 
persecution, and driving slaves to death, — all these are 
the deeds of men constituted mentally as we are. And 
although we find many facts indicating that, on one side, 
we are near akin to the most ferocious brutes, yet on the 
other, we also encounter many evidences that our intel- 
lectual and moral nature stands alone in unapproached 
and sublime superiority, far above everything else in an- 
imated nature. All the glorious achievements of hu- 
manity are to be counted in the credits of every man. 
We appreciate their value ; perhaps, under the most fa- 
vorable circumstances, we, ourselves, might have origi- 
nated them, or made some material contribution to them. 
The inventions of articulate speech, edge tools, fire-kind- 
ling apparatus, tillage, pottery, weaving, and metallurgy, 
the domestication of animals, the discovery of letters, 
the discipline of armies, the organization of states, the 
production of immortal books, and the great triumphs of 
the industrial and ornamental arts, — all these should be 
passed in review to understand what man has been and 
what he is. 

The history of man as I conceive it, should give satis- 
factory replies to questions like these : Is the develop- 
ment of his species in culture a necessary result of his 
mental constitution ? Has it been continuous from his 
first appearance on the earth ? Has it shown itself in 
all the departments of life ? Has it been governed ex- 
clusively by natural causes and uniform law ? What 



PREFACE. § 

have been its chief features in different ages and coun- 
tries ? What relation in time and causative or develop- 
ing influence did tillage, pasturage, bronze, iron, print- 
4 ing press, steam, slavery, nobility, despotism, constitu- 
tional freedom, fetichism, worship of ancestors, idolatry, 
polytheism, and monotheism, bear to general progress 
and to one another ? What did men eat ? How did 
they clothe themselves? What were their industrial 
arts ? What were their social and political institutions ? 
What were their moral and religious opinions ? How 
did the later grow out of the earlier phases of culture ?^ 
For what important contributions to culture are we in- 
debted to the various races, nations, and periods ? 
What influence have conspicuously famous men exerted 
on culture ? What departments of thought and occupa- 
tion have been cultivated with the most success in differ- 
ent ages and countries, and what have been their relative 
values to humanity? Into what categories should we 
divide universal history for the purpose of getting the 
clearest, most comprehensive, and most correct concep- 
tions of its character and development ?^ 

If I mistake not, the study of the story of culture will 
prove conclusively that there is a steady growth of 
knowledge, thought, and ethical feeling, of industrial 
and ornamental arts, and of social and political institu- 
tions, accompanied by a correlative decrease of igno- 
rance, folly, prejudice, superstition, crime, war, and so- 
cial spite. The principle of this development is one of 



6 PREFACE. 

the great natural laws, deserving in its irhportance to be 
classed with the laws of the inherence of force in matter^ 
the combination of the chemical elements in definite 
proportions, cosmic evolution, gravitation, biological 
evolution, the conservation of energy, and the correla- 
tion of the physical and psychical forces. 

The proof of this law of human advancement will 
carry with it the implications that our mental constitu- 
tion has innate capacities for endless development ; that 
progress is a natural and necessary product of human- 
ity ; that no limit can be fixed to the onward march of 
our race in any direction of thought ; that the achieve- 
ments of the past are mere trifles to those that are to en- 
rich the future ; that the discomforts of life will continue 
to diminish, and its enjoyments to increase ; and that 
the ennobling tendencies and influences will become 
more potent in every succeeding age. 

Although there is much reason for the dislike with 
which the literary community regards the disposition to 
needlessly coin new words and to give new definitions or 
new limitations of definition to old ones, still such coin- 
age and definition are sometimes required for the con- 
venience of readers as well as of writers, and under the 
impulse of what seems to be such a necessity, some def- 
initions, not recognized in our dictionaries generally, are 
here accepted. 

Cultui^e, the intellectual growth of mankind. All the 
German histories of mankind are called histories oi Kid- 



PREFACE. 7 

tur. Progress has the same signification, but has other 
meanings, and therefore culture is the better word. It 
is aot here used in its Hmited sense of high refinertient.* 

Cultural^ relating to culture. 

Culturestep, a stage of culture, suggested by the Ger- 
man Kulturstufe. 

Culture-historical, relating to the history of culture, 
suggested by the German Kultur-historisch. 

Savagism, the lowest of the three main culturesteps, 
the general condition of men whose best edge tools are 
made of stone. The savages include the aboriginal 
Americans, north of the Aztec territory and south and 
east of that of the Quichuans, the Pacific islanders, most 
of the Malays, and the Africans south of. the Sahara. 
These Africans are in an impure savagism ; they possess 
metallic tools, but in social, political, and religious insti- 
tutions, and in mental development, they are savages. 
Savagism includes two subordinate or mmor culture- 
steps, the non-tilling and the tilling. 

Non-tilling culture, or non-tilling savagism, the con- 
dition of tribes which do not till the soil. Such are' the 
Australians, Tasmanians, Bushmen, Andamanese, Fue- 
gians. Lower Californians, and^ome other Western Amer- 
icans. 

Tilling culture, the condition of savages, who cultivate, 
the soil. 

Slave-tillage, tillage by slaves; 

Slave-tilling, adjective of slave-tillage. 



8 PREFACE. 

Barbarism, the second of the three main culturesteps, 
the general condition in which we find nations possess- 
ing metallic tools with either hieroglyphics, hereditary 
priesthood, or caste. Barbarous are the Aztecs, Quich- 
uans, ancient Egyptians, Hindoos, Assyrians, Babylo- 
nians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Jews, Persians, Etrus- 
cans, Gauls, Teutons, Tartars, and the modern Chinese, 
Japanese, Hindoos, and Mohammedan nations. Barba- 
rism includes the minor culturesteps of bronze and iron. 

Civilization, the highest of the three main culturesteps, 

including four minor grades. 

Greek civilization or culture, the condition of the an- 
cient Greeks and Romans from 530 b. c. till 450 a. d. 

MedicBval civilisation, the condition of Europe from 

450 A. D. till 1450 A. D. 

Press culture, the condition of Europe from 1450, when 
the printing press came into use, till 1770 a. d. 

Steam culture, the fourth and last of the grades of civ- 
ilization, the condition of the Euraryans from 1770 a. d. 
until the present time. 

Since the word polygamy means plural marriage, and 
may indicate the marriage of one woman to several men, 
or of several women to one man, the word polygyny 
is here preferred, to signify a matrimonial system in 
which one husband has several wives. 

Euraryans, the Aryans in Europe and their descend- 
ants in other parts of the world. The Euraryans include 
the Celts, Teutons, Greeks, Latins, and Slavonians, and 



PREFACE. 9 

exclude the Persians, Afghans, Armenians, Belooches, 
Hindoos, and other Asiatic Aryans. The Euraryan 
nations being near akin to one another in blood, speech, 
and culturestep, closely associated in business and polity, 
and possessing the present and prospective mastery of 
the earth, need some distinctive and comprehensive title. 
No other has been proposed. 

Industry, productive toil of all kinds, including com- 
merce, navigation, transportation of freight and passen- 
gers, banking, agriculture, mining, and metallurgy as 
well as manufactures. We have no other word for this 
comprehensive and important idea.* 

Industrialism^ the spirit of industry as defined in the 
preceding paragraph. 

The phrase, stone age or culturestep, means the con- 
dition of tribes which had edge tools of stone and not of 
bronze; the bronze age ended when iron came. The 
non-tilling culturestep ceased when tillage began ; the 
press culturestep when the steam engine became potent 
as a source of mechanical power. At no time after the 
introduction of tillage were all tribes or nations in the 
same state of culture, nor does the use of the term bronze 
age or iron age imply that they were. 

In recent years, much attention has been paid to the 
evolution of the universe, of the earth, and of animal and 
vegetable life, and to the language, literature, and religion 
of the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Per- 
sians, Hindoos, and Hebrews. In each of these branches 



lO PREFACE. 

numerous important additions to our knowledge have 
been made within half a century. Not less interesting 
and instructive than the new information in these de- 
partments, is that acquired in reference to the history of 
culture, to which the attention of the reader is now in- 
vited. 

In 1875, I published "A Brief History of Culture," for 
school use ; and of that work, this may be considered an 
amplification ; but since in this I have not copied a par- 
agraph of that, and since the material and scope are dif- 
ferent, I have taken a new title. 

The notes have been placed at the end of the volume, 
where they will not distract the attention of the general 
reader, for whom they are not intended, and where they 
can be consulted without inconvenience by the scholar 
seeking verification of my statements, or for fuller infor- 
mation. Care has been taken to call attention to the 
best books and most suggestive passages relating to ev- 
ery branch of culture mentioned prominently in this 
work. J. s. H. 

San Francisco^ September gtJi, i8Sg. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. 

Section. Page. 

1. Man's Antiquity 17 

2. Simian Relations 20 

3. Size, etc 23 

4. Acute senses 24 

5. Vitality 25 

6. Habits 27 

7. Savagism disappearing 27 

8. Savage history 29 

CHAPTER II. ETHNOLOGY. 

9. Races 32 

10. Australians, etc 34 

11. Negroes, etc = 35 

12. Malays 35 

13. Polynesians 36 

14. Americans 37 

15. Mound-builders 38 

16. Aleut Mounds 40 

17. Pleistocene Europeans 44 

18. Danish Mounds 46 

19. Swiss Pile Dwellers 47 



CHAPTER III. INDUSTRY. 



• 



20. Fire 51 

21. Non-tilling culture 52 

22. Tilling savagism 54 

23. Spear, bow, etc... 56 

(11) 



1 2 CONTENTS. 

Section. Page. 

24. Clubs, etc 58 

25. Omnivorous 61 

26. Bread and meat 62 

27. Daintiness 64 

28. Salt and clay 65 

29. Cannibalism 66 

30. Cooking 70 

31. Meals 73 

32. Grinding 73 

33. Water and milk 74 

34. Beer, etc ^ 75 

35. Narcotics 77 

36. Hunting 79 

37. Birds 80 

38. Fishing 81 

39- Bees 85 

40. Villages 85 

41. Huts 87 

42. Furniture 90 

43. Baskets and mats 92 

44. Dogs 93 

45- Pigs 94 

46. Tillage 95 

47. Implements 98 

48. Milk-yielders 99 

49. Boats 100 

50. Pottery 104 

51. Thread, cloth, etc 105 

52. Leather : 107 

53. Traffic 108 

54. Metals 109 

55. Industrial achievements no 

56. Industrial development 118 

^7. Natural progress..* 118 



CONTENTS. 13 

CHAPTER IV. SOCIAL LIFE. 

Section. Page. 

58. Promiscuous group 121 

59. Relationship Nomenclature. 124 

60. Feminine clan 126 

61. Totem 128 

62. Australian Exogamy 130 

63. Feminine clan survivals 132 

64. Masculine clan 136 

65. Capture 138 

66. Polyandry 139 

67. Polygyny 141 

68. Girl's position 142 

69. Wife's position 142 

70. Marriage, etc 145 

71. Brother adoption 147 

72. Couvade 149 

73. Infancy 147 

74. Son-in-law shyness 151 

75. Womanhood 152 

76. Modesty 152 

77. Nudity 153 

78. Clothing 154 

79. Ornaments 156 

80. Hair-dressing 157 

81. Oil and paint 159 

82. Tattoo 160 

83. Mutilation 162 

84. Social development 168 



14 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER V. INTELLECTUAL LIFE. 

Section. * Page. 

85. Capacity 170 

86. Preponderant present 175 

87. Early maturity 176 

88. Jollity 176 

89. Politeness 178 

90. Salutations 179 

91. Education 182 

92. Morality 184 

93. Amusements 186 

94. Poetry 187 

95. Music , , , 189 

96. Medicine, etc 193 

97. Vocabulary 195 

98. Sounds and signs 199 

99. Grammar 203 

100. Rapid change 204 

loi. Intellectual development.... 205 

CHAPTER VI. POLITY. 

102. Headless group 207 

103. Freedom 207 

104. Unstable headship 210 

105. Stable headships 211 

106. Industrial chiefs 212 

107. Assemblies, etc 212 

108. Confederacies 213 

109. Retaliation 215 

no. Retaliation restricted •• 218 

111. Despotic chiefs 220 

112. Succession 221 

113. Ordeals 222 

114. Property 224 

115. Slavery 226 

116. Nobility 228 

117. Political development 229 



CONTENTS. 15 

CHAPTER VII. MILITARY SYSTEM. 

Section. Page. 

118. War 231 

119. Battle * 233 

120. Trophies . 236 

121. Fortifications 237 

122. Initiation 239 

CHAPTER VIII. RELIGION. 

123. Spirits 245 

124. Imaginary world 247 

125. Devout fear 250 

126. Next life 254 

127. Burial, etc 257 

218. Mourning 259 

129. Soul worship 262 

130. Totemism 265 

131. Fetishism 266 

132. Ancestor worship 269 

133. Offerings 270 

134. Sacrifices 272 

135. Human sacrifices 273 

136. Gods 278 

137. Idolatry 282 

138. Divine intercourse 284 

139- Worship 287 

140. Priests 291 

141. Sensitives, etc 295 

142. Sorcerers 297 

143. Sacerdotal functions 300 

144. Areoi 302 

145. Revenue, etc 304 

146. Taboo 305 

147. Omens 309 

148. Temples 311 

149. Religious development 316 



jC CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. REVIEW. 

SECTION PAGE 

150. Culture services ^ 319 

151. Grades of culture...,. 320 

152. Some characteristics... 322 

153. Departmental relations 325 

154. Queer customs 328 

155. Benefits of war 330 

156. Benefits of slavery, etc 333 

157. Benefits of religion 334 

158. Uses of evil 336 

APPENDIX 338 

Notes .. 339 

List of authorities 373 



A History of Mankind. 

CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Section i. Man's Antiquity. — Man has existed on the 
earth certainly forty thousand and perhaps two hundred 
thousand years.^ In the pleistocene era, when periods of 
subtropical warmth, continuing each for thousands of 
years, alternated with others of glacial cold in central 
Europe, he dwelt there. In the last of at least four 
warm interglacial periods of that era, the climate of the 
Northern Hemisphere was so mild that the vegetation in 
latitude 75° N. was about the same as that now found 
twenty degrees nearer to the equator ; and the lion, the 
hippopotamus, the kaffir cat, the hyena, and many plants 
of subtropical character lived as far north as England. 
The woolly elephant or mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros 
and the sabre-toothed tiger w^ere also there, but these 
animals, now extinct, may have been able to endure the 
severe winters of the northern temperate zone. The era 
or the last era of the subtropical mammals in northwest- 
ern Europe was followed by the reappearance of the 
great ice sheet, at which time the land there had a con- 

(17) 



1 8 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

siderably higher elevation than now ; and then the land 
sank, the cUmate became milder and the ice melted, but 
the elephant, the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the lion, 
and the tiger did not return. Another subsidence of the 
land occurred and in the midst of this era, man, with pol- 
ished stone tools and presumably with tillage, made his 
appearance. Again the land in England rose, this time 
to an elevation about fifty feet above its present level, 
and numerous small glaciers appeared in the British and 
Scandinavian mountains. Still later the land sank to 
thirty feet below its present level, and then Europe took 
its present shape, but this occurred so long before our 
time that no record or tradition of the changes in the 
form and area of the continent has been preserved among 
its people. 

Geikie, Croll, Lyell, and other learned and able schol- 
ars who have written about the antiquity of mankind, 
believe that our species has existed on the earth at least 
two hundred thousand years. Some authorities who 
have investigated the history of oriental nations tell us 
that presumably not more than fifteen thousand and per- 
haps not more than ten thousand years have elapsed 
since the introduction of bronze tools began to lift men 
from savagism into barbarism. Not three thousand 
years have passed since some of the Greek states 
emerged from barbarism into civilization. All mankind 
spent perhaps one hundred and eighty thousand years in 
savagism ; and during part of the last twenty thousand 
years, a small proportion of our race has been in 
higher conditions of culture. The development of tilling 
from non-tilling culture was an achievement of greater 
difficulty and demanded more time than that of barbar- 
ism from savagism. 



SEC. I. MAN'S ANTIQUITY, I9 

The earliest traces of men have been found in Europe 
and North America, because in those continents there 
has been the greatest amount of mining and excavation, 
under the inspection of highly educated men ; but it does 
not follow that the earliest men lived in those continents. 
On the contrary, there is reason to believe that the human 
race first appeared in the torrid portions of Africa or 
Malaysia,^ where the black race, the nearest human rela- 
tives of the highest brutes, the anthropoid apes — and pre- 
sumably older than the more highly developed yellow 
and white races, are indigenous. Reasoning from the 
changes observed in later ages, we infer that these primi- 
tive black men were smaller in body and brain, and more 
ape-like in their forms and faces, than the Africans of 
modern times. 

Of the men who lived more than twenty thousand 
years ago, it may be said that we know nothing save 
that they lived and had edge-tools of stone. We find 
their bones, their arrowheads, their flint knives or scrap- 
ers, and the marks of their tools or weapons on fossil 
wood or bone, and very little more. These remains fur- 
nish much material for remark to the archaeologist, but 
little for the historian. 

All men belong to one species. All races of humanity 
are indefinitely fertile in their crosses with one another. 
In all tribes and nations and in all stages of culture, man 
has the same general features of physical form and men- 
tal character. He has the same number of pulse beats 
and of inhalations in a minute, the same average temper- 
ature, the same wants, the same passions.^ In his most 
primitive condition he contained the potentialities of 
speech, industry, society, polity and religion, as they now 
appear. He was a struggling, toiling, reasoning animal. 



20 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

with a capacity for and an irresistible impulse towards con- 
tinuous and unlimited mental progress. He was so con- 
stituted that he could enjoy keen plea^sures and endure 
bitter sorrows ; that his days should be fringed with- 
smiles and tears ; that life should be dear to him ; and 
that his attachment to it should increase as his genera- 
tions multiplied. 

By his physical and intellectual qualities, man isr. 
enabled to obtain his food, to preserve his life, and to 
make his permanent home in every zone, and in every 
continent. He can live where ether boils and where 
mercury freezes in the open air. The land animals, the 
birds, the aquatic mammals, and the fishes of every zone- 
furnish food nutritious to him. He can reach all parts 
of the earth's surface save those within a few degrees of 
the poles. He dominates over the globe, occupies most 
of it, and it is by his sufferance that many of the other 
occupants are permitted to live. 

Sec. 2. Shnian Relations. — The negro's skeleton is 
relatively heavier than that of the white man ; his skulL 
is thicker, and sometimes in Dahomy has no sutures.*" 
In fighting, black men often butt each other like rams,,, 
and they break a stick over the head rather than over 
the knee. The swords of the "Spaniards were often, 
broken on the heads of the aborigines in Jamaica.^ The 
Australians break sticks over their heads,^ and they have- 
duels, in which the combatants exchange alternate blows 
on the head with stout clubs, each standing still in his 
turn to give his enemy a fair chance, until one is stun- 
ned. Every blow would disable if not kill a European^ 
The tibia and fibula in the shin are sometimes united into* 
one bone through their whole length in the black and 
more rarely in the yellow man, as they always are in the 



SEC. 2. SIMIAN RELATIONS. 21 

ape, Simla troglodytes. The arch of the negro's instep is 
low and his foot flat, resembling the foot of the ape and 
.suggesting the exaggeration of the burlesque song, '' The 
liollow of his foot makes a hole in the ground." His 
Tieel projects more than the white man's, so that he needs 
a different shoe.* Often when standing, instead of throw- 
ing his weight squarely on his flat sole, he rests on the 
outer edges of his feet, as do the large apes.^ The sesa- 
moidal bones at the joints of the thumb and great toe 
are found rarely in Europeans and often in negroes.^ 

The legs are shorter relatively in the savage than in 
the civilized man ;^ and in the African the lower arm and 
liand are longer. When standing upright he can touch 
liis knee-cap with the point of his middle finger, while 
the white man cannot come within two inches of it.^ 
In the civilized man the tibia is round ; in many savages, 
including Michigan mound-builders ^ and European cave 
<iwellers,^° it is flat or platecnymic. The perforation of 
the lower end of the humerus for the passage of the 
^reat nerve is found in all the quadrumana, in one-third 
•of the Europeans of the reindeer period, and in one per 
cent, of the modern Europeans. ^^ 

While the finger bones are longer in the negro, the 
■fingers down to the separation between them are shorter, 
the flesh or skin extending farther from the knuckles,^^ 
and one of the most strongly marked lines of the Euro- 
pean hand, that of the last three fingers, is wanting in the 
blacks, and is slightly marked in the yellow and red 
men.^^ 

In the narrowness of the pelvis^* and in the breadth and 
arched form of the chest, the negro occupies an interme- 
diate position between the white man and the ape.^^ A 
comparison of the profiles of the heads of different races 



22 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

shows that in prognathism or projection of the lower 
part of the face, the black man is nearest to, and the white 
man farthest from the ape, with the yellow in the inter- 
mediate position. Flatness of nose and projection of 
teeth accompany general prognathism. The negro's 
occiput, instead of projecting beyond his thick neck, is 
on a line with it, and the same peculiarity is found in 
some Polynesians. The flat nasal bones are ossified with 
the adjacent bones in some Africans as they are in apes.^^ 

The women of the Bushmen tribe have a remarkable 
development of fat on the hips which in some cases pro- 
jects out backwards six inches or more, with a nearly 
even horizontal upper surface. This hump, — of which 
engravings may be found in many scientific works, from 
drawings of the woman who attracted great attention 
at Paris in the last century as " the Hottentot Venus," — 
has its counterpart in some of the female apes.^^ 

Negroes and Australians have little calf on the leg, and 
anatomists say that the calf is one of the peculiar features 
of humanity. One of the most remarkable peculiarities 
of the black men, is the woolly character of the hair. 
Instead of being long and straight, or curly, as in white 
men, it is either short or kinky. In many tribes it does 
not exceed three inches in length, and gathers in little 
rope-like twists about a third of an inch in diameter. In 
the Hottentots, Bushmen and Papuans, the hair grows in 
tufts with intervening bare patches of scalp, and instead 
of gradually diminishing in length and thickness of 
growth on the temples and neck, as in the white man, it 
ceases abruptly, suggesting to the inexperienced Euro- 
pean observer, the idea that it must be a wig.^^ 

In many tribes, the women are more muscular than 
the men. They carry heavier burdens, and can swim 



SEC. 3. SIZE, ETC. 23 

farther/^ They are accustomed to steady ton, while the 
men are not. And yet, in consequence of very early 
marriages and the custom of suckling their children for 
at least three years, with occasional subjection to excess- 
ive fatigue and insufficient food supply, they are wrinkled 
before they reach twenty-five. In several tropical coun- 
tries, they cease to bear children before they have reached 
that age."*' With rare exceptions, they have neither finely- 
shaped features nor charming expression ; and the round- 
ness of youth disappears before they are out of their 
teens. The beauty of the mature woman is a product of 
civilization. In certain tribes nearly all the children are 
born at one season of the year, as in many species of 
brutes. 

These physical variations between savages and civil- 
ized men are, nearly all, caused by differences in culture. 
They are results of intellectual development accompanied 
by different modes of life, and as such must be considered 
as belonging to the history of the mental growth of the 
species. 

Sec. 3. Size, etc. — The primitive negroes were prob- 
ably smaller than modern savages, who generally are 
smaller than civilized men. The average height of the 
Dokos, Akkas and Abongos is four feet and one inch ; 
of the Bushmen four feet and a half; of the Veddahs 
and Andamanese, less than five feet ; and of the Brazil- 
ian Indians, the Aleuts, the Eskimos and some savage 
tribes of Northern Asia, less than five feet four inches.^ 
The prehistoric cave dwellers of Europe were small, and 
the hilt of the swords of the bronze age are too short for 
the modern European hand. 

The savage has relatively a larger alimentary system 
than the civilized man, and can eat more at a meal. 



24 A HISTORY OF MANKINDr 

The Bushmen have *' powers of stomach similar to beasts 
of prey, both in voracity and in the power of supporting 
hunger.""'^ A Yakoot or a Tungoos can devour forty 
pounds of meat in a day.^ Wonderful stories are told of 
the capacity of stomach in Comanches, Eskimos, and 
Australians.* Though the savage is tough and under 
great stimulus can travel fast and far, he dislikes steady 
toil and is, perhaps, unfitted for it by the irregularity of 
his food supply if not by the character of his digestive 
system or of his mind. After gorging himself he wants 
a prolonged period of rest. The Hottentots have been 
described as *' the laziest people under the sun."^ In con- 
sequence of irregularity in exertion, the Bushmen are 
usually suffering with famine or stuffing themselves with 
a feast.® The Bhils '' will half starve rather than work."'^ 
The Kirghiz are exemplary idlers.^ The North Ameri- 
can Indians hate and despise regular work of every kind. 
They act as if they had inherited a constitutional unfit- 
ness for steady toil. 

Sec. 4. Acute Senses. — In acuteness of sight, hearing, 
and smell, the savages approach the brutes. The North 
American Indian can see objects at a distance as dis- 
tinctly with the naked eye as a white man can with 
an opera glass. There are tribes in which every individ- 
ual can recognize, by its odor, the ownership of an arti- 
cle of clothing recently worn by any intimate acquaint- 
ance. When meeting a stranger they want to smell himV 
as an aid to identification. They can discover the ap- 
proach of a white man in the dark by his odor, which is 
offensive to them as it is to their horses and dogs. Some 
tribes can distinguish the sexes by the smell. ^ Savages 
dislike odors imperceptible to the average white nostril, 
and they like or are indifferent to some such as that of 



SEC. 5. VITALITY. 2$ 

the stoat, very offensive to the civilized olfactories. 
Many of the favorite perfumes of the black and red man 
fill the European with repugnance. To most savages 
putrid meats and vegetables and unwashed intestines of 
animals are not rendered unwelcome as food by their 
odor.* 

Sec. 5. Vitality. — In the toughness of his vitality, the 
savage resembles a brute. The healing power of nature 
is stronger in him than in the civilized man. A severe 
bullet wound that would immediately prostrate a white 
man, and prove fatal to him, despite the best surgical care, 
will not prevent a Redman from keeping on his horse to 
ride thirty or forty miles and finally recovering without 
the aid of a surgeon.^ An Australian had his skull frac- 
tured to the length of three inches on the temple by a 
blow which entirely severed the temporal artery, and yet 
the next day he took an active part in a public gathering. 
Another Australian had the ulna and radius of one arm 
shattered so that the splinters of bone were driven 
down into his hand, and yet his wound healed without 
bandage or operation, and notwithstanding the fact that 
many maggots had made their appearance on its surface.^ 
In Abyssinia death seldom ensues when a hand or foot 
is cut off in the punishment of crime.* Moors, Arabs, 
Malays, and Redmen recover from wounds that would be 
fatal to Europeans.^ Savage women in Africa, in the 
Pacific Islands and in both Americas give birth to chil- 
dren with little pain, and with very brief interruption, 
usually of not more than an hour or two, to their ordi- 
nary occupations. 

Of the relative insensibility of savages to pain, we 
shall find many proofs in the sections relating to their 
tattooings, cicatrizations and ceremonies of initiation into 



26 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

the classes of adults, warriors and priests. Monteiro 
observed in Angola that negroes suffered little pain 
from large wounds, and that their systems felt no 
such shock as do those of whites from severe amputa- 
tions.^ Moseley says '' negroes are void of sensibility to 
a surprising degree. They are not subject to nervous 
diseases. They sleep soundly in every disease, nor does 
any mental disturbance ever keep them awake. They 
bear chirurgical operations much better than white peo- 
ple ; and what would be the cause of insupportable pain 
to a white man a negro would almost disregard."^ 

Savages are also relatively insensible to the discom- 
forts of cold. The Fuegian when nearly naked seemed 
almost indifferent to sleet, while Cook's sailors, with all 
their clothing, were suffering intensely. The Yakoot can 
sleep without injury while the frost forms on his naked 
legs ; and the North American Indian does not need 
one-fourth as much clothing as does his white neighbor 
in the winter of Dakota. The red children of that re- 
gion go naked in cold weather, a practice which would 
soon be fatal to white boys and girls of the same age.^ 
The Bushman has little feeling for changes of tempera- 
ture, and the Abipone is '' extremely tolerant of the in- 
clemencies of the sky."^ 

The colored races are less susceptible than white peo- 
ple to various forms of malarious disease. In the Gulf 
States east of the Mississippi, pure negroes seldom die of 
yellow fever ; the larger the proportion of white blood 
in the mixed breed, the greater the mortality from that 
epidemic. The dark hill tribes of Hindostan suffer less 
with malaria than do the Europeans in the same region. 
Gout, apoplexy and dropsy were unknown among the 
aborigines of Lower California.^ 



SEC. 7. SAVAGISM DISAPPEARING. 2/ 

Sec. 6. Habits. — Some savage habits, unknown to civ- 
ilization, may deserve mention here. The Hottentots 
and Bushmen sleep on their sides with the knees touch- 
ing the breast, and the calf touching the thigh ; and the 
Australian sleeps rolled up like a hedgehog.^ The Poly- 
nesians generally, the Malays and some Africans, as well 
as the poorer Chinamen frequently rest by sitting on 
their haunches, with all their weight on their feet.""^ In 
the Soudan and other parts of Africa a man may some- 
times be seen resting while standing erect, with one 
foot on the other leg above the knee, steadying himself 
with his spear.^ In the midst of a tiresome march, the 
Aymara prepares himself for continuing his journey hy 
standing for a few minutes on his head.* 

Sec. 7. Savagism Disappearing. — Savagism is dimin- 
ishing rapidly in its numbers and area ; and at the end of 
the next century will probably have few living repre- 
sentatives. Since 1500 A. d., many tribes have died out;: 
many have greatly decreased, and none have gained 
much in number. The rapid diminution has been ob- 
served under the dominion of the Spanish, Portuguese^ 
French, English, Russian, American and aboriginal gov- 
ernments ; under the Catholic, Protestant, Greek and 
heathen religions ; under civil, military and sacerdotal 
rule ; in tropical, temperate and frigid climes ; in Polyne- 
sia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, Tasmania, the 
Aleutian Islands, the United States, Canada, Soutk 
America, the Antilles, and Africa.^ The last aboriginal 
Cuban died in 1 700 ;^ the last Tasmanian in 1 869 f the 
last of many tribes once numerous east of the Missis- 
sippi in unrecorded years. There are not now one- 
twentieth as many Redmen in the United States as 
there were three centuries since.* Cook estimated the 



28 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

number of the Hawaiians about 1775 at four hundred, 
thousand, and now the census shows about forty thou- 
sand. The Tahitian islands had sixteen thousand inhab- 
itants in 1797 and have now six thousand.^ In 1820 the 
Mariana group had twenty thousand; in 1880 not two 
thousand.^ Lavavai had one thousand two hundred in 
1822 and in 1830 only one hundred and twenty. In 
1822 there were twenty thousand Indians at the missions 
of California, and the descendants of those people pure in 
their blood, do not now number one thousand, and their 
descendants of mixed blood are few. 

The main causes of the decrease are the inability of 
the savages to adopt a civilized mode of life, the diminu- 
tion of their food supplies, their inability to restrain their 
longing for intoxicating liquors, the introduction among 
them of new diseases, their disastrous wars with the more 
numerous white men, and their expulsion from their an- 
cestral homes by advancing civilization. Nowhere has a 
considerable community, savage three centuries since, 
risen without admixture Avith white blood, to a culture 
of unquestionable civilization. Large areas occupied ex- 
clusively by savages in 1500 are now occupied exclu- 
sively by civilized white men, and other such areas are 
under the dominating control of the Europeans. 

In the early part of the last century, the buffalo ranged 
over one million five hundred thousand square miles of 
North America, and was the chief reliance of three hun- 
dred thousand Redmen for their food, clothing, bedding, 
and tent covering. The total number of these animals 
was presumably not less than eight million or ten million, 
so that two million could die annually without diminu- 
tion of the stock. Those immense herds have now dis- 
appeared,^ as a source of food. Under the influence of fire 



SEC. 8. SAVAGE HISTORY. 29 

arms and of the high prices offered for pelts, many large 
animals, including deer, antelope, elk and moose, have en- 
tirely disappeared from extensive regions now occupied 
by white men, and have greatly diminished in regions 
still inhabited exclusively by Redmen. Under the de- 
mand for the oil and skin of seals, and for the ivory of 
walruses, those aquatic mammals have been greatly re- 
duced in numbers, and the Eskimos are thus deprived 
of their previous supply of food. The Indians on the 
banks of the Columbia andFraser have been deprived by 
white fisheries, of much of the salmon which formerly as- 
cended to the upper portions of those rivers. 

Various contagious and infectious diseases previously 
unknown to the aboriginal Americans and Pacific Island- 
ers, were introduced among them by the Europeans, 
The smallpox swept away entire tribes, and the measles 
proved fatal to many. Forms of throat disease previously 
unknown or unimportant became widely destructive in 
Polynesia after the people began to wear clothes. While 
under the control of the Franciscan friars, the Mission 
Indians of California diminished rapidly ; and those In- 
dians taken while children as servants into American fam- 
ilies in California, generally died of consumption before 
reaching the age of thirty. 

Wherever civilized settlers have established themselves 
in savage territory, the aborigines have been driven back 
and in many cases have been expelled by force from their 
ancestral homes. War, the practically unavoidable ac- 
companiment of the spread of civilization, was in many 
cases provoked much more by the savages than by the 
civilized men, and the general result has been beneficial 
to mankind.^ 

Sec. 8. Savage History. — As a necessary result of the 



30 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

character of the material, a large part of this volume will 
be a description of the arts and institutions of different 
tribes, with little information about the circumstances of 
their development. In savagism, progress is so slow and 
so hidden from observation, that we must learn its growth 
only by comparison of the various conditions, successive 
in culture, not in the same territory, but in different 
countries. It has not been given to any one politi- 
cal organization to march, in the plain view of history, 
through all grades of past progress, nor to be its leading 
exponent for many ages. As compared with the long 
existence of humanity, nations generally have short lives. 
"They strut for a few years on the scene and then make 
their exit, to appear no more forever. A Celtic, a Ro- 
man, and a Teutonic Gaul have occupied the territory 
and contributed to the population of modern France. A 
Numidian, a Carthaginian, a Roman, a Vandal, and a 
Mohammedan state ruled successively before the French 
established their present dominion in Algiers. In Egypt, 
Judea, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, England, Russia, 
and Hindostan, we find revolution after revolution. 
Among peoples in the lower culturesteps, generally, the 
Tvarfare is more bitter and continuous, the military or- 
ganization less compact, and the political community 
smaller. Such influences are unfavorable to the lonsf 
duration of tribal life, and to the production of many 
grades of culture in any one nationality ; and they ren- 
der it impossible to trace much mental growth in any 
one savage community. 

Every savage tribe has remained through its whole 
known career, in the same or nearly the same culture- 
step. If it had no tillage when first observed by white 
men, then it has not adopted tillage yet. If it had no 



SEC. 8. SAVAGE HISTORY. 3I 

slaves, then it has no slaves yet. No tribe has a tradi- 
tion of inventing or adopting" pottery, weaving, or sail 
canoes. Such improvements were made in the past, but 
at a time so remote that the memory of their first intro- 
duction has been lost. The Australians, Kaffirs, and 
Redmen of North America, after being familiar for gen- 
erations with civilized arts, are still savages. 

The account of the manners and customs of savages 
at the beginning of a history of mankind may be prop- 
erly historical, though it does not trace distinctly the 
development of the higher from the lower conditions. 
It is sufficient to show how one tribe lived on wild 
plants and animals; and how another obtained some of 
its food from land tilled by women ; and how still an- 
other had large stocks of food grown with the help of 
slaves ; and how one of these forms followed another in 
the natural course of progress. Of the advance of hu- 
manity before the time of written records, we must form 
our conceptions, to a large extent, by inferences from 
later conditions. Such inferences, though very different 
from the proofs obtainable for most of the facts in civil- 
ized culture, are safe guides when used with knowledge 
and judgment, and are indispensable aids in searching for 
light upon the childhood of humanity. 

In the accounts given here of the savages and their 
culture, the present tense will be used for convenience of 
expression even in reference to tribes which, in modern 
times, have died out or have abandoned the arts, customs, 
and ideas of their forefathers. 



CHAPTER II. 

ETHNOLOGY. 

Section 9. Races. — Men may be divided into three 
main races, the black, the yellow, and the white. 

The black race, in physical organization nearest to the 
ape, and in mental capacity the lowest, numbers perhaps 
two hundred and fifty million persons, and occupies 
Australia, Melanesia, most of Africa, and a small part of 
Asia. Most of the blacks are in the torrid zone, and 
more than any other, they are a tropical race. They 
have never produced a great inventor, merchant, states- 
man, conqueror, orator, author, or religious teacher, nor 
built a splendid city, nor maintained a durable govern- 
ment over millions of people, nor made an important 
contribution to progress in historical times. The ne- 
groes and Congoese, ever since they became known to 
white men, have been recognized as the fittest of all 
families for bondage, and have furnished most of the 
material for the slave trade. Too lazy to apply them- 
selves steadily to labor without compulsion, too stupid 
to form powerful military organizations, and too spirit- 
less to make stubborn resistance to oppression, they 
have in all ages submitted to servitude. 

(32) 



SEC. 9. RACES. 33 

The yellow race, in physical organization between the 
black and the white races, numbers perhaps six hundred 
million persons, and occupies eastern and northern Asia, 
both Americas, the Malay archipelago, Polynesia, Mi- 
cronesia, and Madagascar. It is found in the torrid, 
temperate, and frigid zones. Most of the yellow men 
are barbarous, many are savage, none are civilized. 

The white race numbers perhaps five hundred and 
fifty million persons, and includes the Hindoos, Persians, 
Afghans, Belooches, Armenians, Georgians, Circassians, 
Slavonians, Celts, Greeks, Latins and Teutons, who are 
classed together as Aryans, and the Hebrews, Arabs, As- 
syrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Copts, 
Fellahs, Abyssinians and Berbers, who are classed to- 
gether as Semites. The white men belong to the tem- 
perate zone and all civilization belongs to them, but not 
all of them are civilized. 

Besides races of different colors, mankind is divided 
into archaeological classes of the prehistoric and the his- 
toric. The prehistoric savages of most interest to us are 
the pleistocene European cave dwellers and drift men, the 
Danish shell-mounders, the Swiss pile dwellers, who may 
have belonged to the white race, and the Aleutian echi- 
nus-eaters, who were yellow. 

Although geographical circumstances have great in- 
fluence on the progress of civilized communities, they 
have relatively little on tribes in low conditions of cult- 
ure. The small and isolated group of the Tahitian Isl- 
ands with only six hundred square miles of area in the 
tropics, without an indigenous cereal or quadruped, was 
the home of the highest development of m odern savag- 
ism, and decidedly superior to Samoa, Tonga, and New 
Zealand, each of which had a greater area, larger popula- 



34 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

tion, and greater natural resources in charge of the same 
Polynesian race. 

Sec. io. Australians, etc. — The black race is divided 
into the Australian, Melanesian, Negro, Congoese, and 
Kaffir families. The Australians have no tillage, no 
pottery, no cloth, no permanent chiefs, and in most 
districts, no huts and no canoes. In competition with 
all other families, they can claim the distinction of hav- 
ing the largest number of people and the most extensive 
territory in the lowest condition of culture. 

Their continent, the only one exclusively savage, that 
is, savage in its aboriginal population, is also the poorest 
of the continents in soil, rainfall, botany, and zoology. 
It has no indigenous cereal or placental mammal. The 
greater part of its area is an arid desert. It has no great 
navigable river, no large fertile valley. Africa has a ma- 
jority of the savages of the globe, and as compared with 
the other continents, has the shortest coast line in pro- 
portion to area, the fewest good harbors, and the most 
oppressive climate. The Polynesian, Micronesian and 
Melanesian Islands are generally small, and lacking in 
cereals and in indigenous ruminants, and most of them 
have neither clay suitable for pottery, nor flint suitable 
for stone knives. America is poor in indigenous cereals 
and ruminants. 

The Melanesians, called also Papuans or negrillos, 
number perhaps two hundred thousand and occupy Mel- 
anesia or the tropical Pacific Islands, extending through 
fifty degrees of longitude from Fiji to Wagen in the south- 
ern hemisphere. There are also a few small communities 
of Melanesians in the Malay archipelago, and these are 
about as low in culture as the Australians. The Papuans 
generally are in the tillage culturestep. They have dogs, 



SEC. 12. MALAYS. 35 

pigs, chickens, huts, and canoes. They have few slaves 
and no hereditary nobility. In industrial skill, political 
organization and general culture, the Fijians are much 
superior to the other Melanesians. 

Sec. II. Negroes^ etc. — The Kaffirs occupy Africa from 
io° S. latitude to the Cape of Good Hope. From their 
line to 17° N. are the Congoese, between whose terri- 
tory and the Sahara are the negroes. The Bushmen, 
few in number, and on the same level in culture with the 
Australians, belong to the Kaffir family. The African 
blacks generally are in a condition of impure savagism. 
By intercourse with white men they have learned the arts 
of metallurgy and pasturage, and have acquired consid- 
erable stocks of iron and of milk-yielding animals ; but 
their polity, religion, social institutions and general mental 
state are savage. They have no public records, no art of 
writing, no orderly government, and no noteworthy ac- 
cumulation of property increasing from generation to gen- 
eration. They have pottery, woolen cloth, large canoes 
and permanent dwellings. Many of their tribes have des- 
potic chiefs, and slaves ; few have a well organized nobility. 

Sec. 12. Malays. — The Malays occupy the islands 
west of New Guinea and north of Australia, besides part 
of the peninsula of Malacca. Their territory is nearly 
all insular and, except Madagascar, all in the tropics. 
Their sea-coast is extensive in proportion to the area of 
the land, and their islands are near together, so that their 
situation is favorable to maritime commerce. As boat- 
builders, mariners, explorers and colonists, they and their 
descendants^ the Polynesians^ and Micronesians, have sur- 
passed all other savage families. They sailed far to the 
west, to the east and to the north. The name Mala- 
gasy indicates that the inhabitants of Madagascar immi- 



36 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

grated from Malacca; and numerous words prove the 
relationship of their speech with that of the Malays in 
Java and Borneo, and with that of the Polynesians and 
Micronesians. Though thirty degrees of longitude sep- 
arate Tahiti from New Zealand, a native of the former 
group could serve as interpreter in the latter, for Captairt 
Cook. Traditions of the first colonizing expeditions are 
preserved in many of the islands; and the names of their 
former homes were carried with them to the new islands. 
The word Hawaii — or its equivalent, evidently of the 
same origin, — is derived from the old name of Java, and 
is found in Samoa, Tonga, Roratonga and New Zealand.'"^' 

Since ancient times, the Malays of Malacca, Sumatra 
and Java have been influenced by communication, more 
or less direct, with China, Siam and Burma, from which 
they learned to smelt iron, to tame the buffalo, and to 
use letters, so that they or most of them long since rose 
into barbarism. There are however many Malays who- 
are still savages, and of these the general cultural condi- 
tion is very similar to that of the Polynesians. 

Sec. 13. Polynesians. — The most interesting sub-family 
of the Malays is the Polynesian, which occupies New 
Zealand, Tucopia, the Ellice group, and the tropical 
islands of the Pacific east of longitude 180°. Except 
New ZealancJ, all this territory is in the tropics, and con- 
sists of numerous insular groups. The largest island has 
less than eight thousand square miles and fewer thart 
twenty-five thousand inhabitants now, and probably had 
fewer than eighty thousand people when first known to- 
European navigators. The larger islands of tropical 
Polynesia are volcanic and rise in their center to high 
peaks, with narrow belts suitable for tillage near the sea 
shore. Many of the smaller islands are of coral rock. 



SEC. 14. AMERICANS. 3/ 

and rise only a few feet above the level of the ocean. 
The Polynesians and the Micronesians west of them have 
no metals, no pottery, no weaving, no public records and 
no herds of ruminant animals, but their lack of metals, 
ruminants, pottery and cloth should be charged to the 
poverty of their country, not to their want of enterprise. 
They have tillage, slaves, hereditary nobles and priests, 
despotic chiefs, ancestral gods and national divinities. 
Their general culture is the highest in modern savag- 
ism and in a comparison of their tribes with one an- 
other, the Tahitians are entitled to the first, and the Maori 
to the last place, notwithstanding the great advantages of 
New Zealand over every other Polynesian group, in larger 
population, greater area, more varied natural resources, 
and the stimulating influence of a temperate climate.^ 

Sec. 14. Americans. — The Americans of aboriginal 
blood now living may number twenty-five million, many 
of them mixed with black or white blood. They have 
no influential nucleus of pure stock or strong aboriginal 
government; and those tribes which have kept their 
blood pure or nearly so, are rapidly decreasing in number. 
They are presumably descended from Asiatic immigrants 
who may have crossed to America by way of the Aleu- 
tian Islands or by Behring Strait.^ Similar arts and in- 
stitutions are found on both shores of the North Pacific ; '^ 
and the languages of the New World, from the extreme 
north to the extreme south, all belong to the same poly- 
synthetic class which is akin to the agglutinative tongues 
of Northern Asia.^ 

For convenience of description, the term Redmen will 
be given here to the aboriginal North Americans between 
the territories of the Aztecs and of the Eskimos. All 
the Redmen east of the Mississippi, are in the tillage cul- 



2,S A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

ture step, many possessing pottery, cloth, canoes, and 
.dogs ; many of the tribes west of the Mississippi are in 
the non-tilHng condition ; and the lower Californians and 
some tribes in Central California are so low that they 
have no canoes, no huts, and not even dogs. Thus in 
the last point they are even lower than the Australians^ 
None of the Redmen have slaves, nobles, despotic chiefs, 
ancestral or national gods. The mound-builders, who 
were Redmen, the same in family and general culture as 
the tribes east of the Mississippi in modern times, will be 
the subject of another section. 

The Caribs in the region north of the Orinoco are the 
most advanced savages of South America. They have 
slaves, nobles, and sail canoes. In these they venture 
to all parts of the Caribbean Sea. Most of the South 
American tribes in the basins of the Amazon and La 
Plata have torpid minds and low culture. 

The Eskimos, who occupy the entire northern shore of 
North America from Hudson's Strait to Point Barrow,, 
spend most of their time in the snow. They live in snow 
huts through more than eight months of the year, and 
depend for food mainly on the blubber of the seal, walrus 
and whale. Tillage is impossible in their frozen soil, and 
they have no domestic animal save the dog. They 
neither weave cloth nor burn pottery. From the seal 
they get clothing, bedding, tent-covers, boat-covers, cur- 
tains, leather, waterproof garments, oil bottles, thread 
and oil for light and cookery. 

Sec. 15. Mound-Builders. — Neither history nor tra- 
dition gives us any account of the origin of numerous 
earthworks found overmuch of the Mississippi basin and 
several adjacent regions. These structures, mostly 
mounds, have never been counted with precision, but the 



SEC. 15. MOUND-BUILDERS. 39 

total number has been estimated at fifty thousand. In 
Ohio there are thirteen thousand ; in a semi-circle east of 
the Mississippi River, with a radius fifty miles long from 
the mouth of the Illinois river as a center, there are five 
thousand.^ The works are most numerous in or near 
fertile valleys and were found on the sites of many now 
flourishing cities, including Chicago, St. Louis, Cincin- 
nati, Milwaukee and Dayton. Of these works a majority 
are conical mounds, erected for sepulchral or military 
purposes, ranging from five to ninety feet in height and 
averaging perhaps twenty. Some of the larger mounds 
of irregular shape must have been intended for public 
worship. The largest of these, at Cahokia, Illinois, is 
seven hundred feet long, five hundred wide, and at the 
highest point, ninety feet high. It covers six acres, and 
its solid contents are estimated to be seven hundred and 
forty thousand cubic yards. Many of the mounds are 
shaped like animals ; and one resembles a mammoth. 
As a general rule the material of the mound is exactly 
the same as that of the adjacent soil. 

Besides the mounds, there are numerous walls evi- 
dently constructed for the purposes of fortifications. 
These, when first observed by the white men,, were 
usually from ten to fifteen feet wide, and in the middle 
about a foot or two feet above the level of the adjacent 
soil. The walls inclosed squares, circles, long parallelo- 
grams, octagonal or irregular plots, and many were on 
hill-tops near water suitable for military purposes. The 
enclosed areas vary from ten to two hundred acres. The 
material of the walls is usually earth, rarely rough stone, 
never cut stone. 

In the mounds are found many tools and ornaments of 
stone, vessels of unglazed pottery, net sinkers of galena, 



40 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

awls of bone, beads of shell, bracelets, pendants, beads 
and knives of beaten copper, simple ornaments of silver, 
and pieces of obsidian. The copper, silver and obsidian 
are rare. There is no cast copper, no bronze, no iron, 
no cut stone, no lime mortar. There is nothing to 
indicate a culture different from that found in the 
same regions of the first European explorers. The 
size and multitude of the mounds indicate either that 
the population was much denser formerly than in the 
last century, or that many successive generations toiled 
in piling up the earth. If it be true, however, as reported, 
that De Soto at one place marched for two leagues 
through a continuous field of maize, in what is now 
northern Florida, that region may then have been as 
densely populated as was the Miami Valley when thq 
mounds were built. Lapham, Carr and Jones, who are 
among the most trustworthy writers on the mounds of 
the Redmen, believe the modern Indians are the descend- 
ants of the mound-builders. Lapham found that the 
bones in some of the mounds were not more than four 
centuries old. Many of the military and ecclesiastical 
usages of the mound-builders are found among the recent 
Redmen. The embankments of the Iroquois to sustain 
their palisades have made walls like those of the mound- 
builders ; and the Natchez and Creeks have erected 
mounds since the white men settled on the continent. 

Sec. 1 6. Aleut Mounds. — In many countries, the sites 
of ancient savage villages are marked by mounds, made 
by the gradual accumulation of refuse from their meals, 
their fires, and their mechanical labors. Such mounds 
consist of ashes, wood, coal, bone, shell, fragments of 
stone and dirt. On the banks of some rivers and tide- 
waters rich in moUusks, a great part of the material is 



SEC. 1 6. ALEUT MOUNDS. 4I 

shell, suggesting the name of shell mounds used in por- 
tions of the United States and Australia. Other names 
for such accumulations are, village mounds and kitchen 
heaps. 

The Aleutian Indians have a multitude of village 
mounds, extending through thirty-five degrees of longi- 
tude from the island of Attu to Cook's Inlet on the 
American Continent. W. H. Dall, to whom we are 
indebted for our knowledge of them, opened some in 
Attu, Amchitka, Adakh, Akka, Unalashka, Amukna, 
and the Shumagin group, and he made slight excavations 
in many other places.^ These excavations were remark- 
able on account of finding no trace of fire ; and many of 
the mounds had strata indicating that the savages used no 
fish, bird or mammal as an article of food. The mounds 
are slight elevations near fresh water, and near harbors 
where canoes could land in rough weather, and consist of 
three strata. Of these the first and lowest was deposited 
when the people ate nothing but the echinus, a shell- 
fish ; the second, when their food consisted exclusively 
of fish ; and the third, when they had added birds and 
mammals to their list of provisions. 

The echinus is a marine moUusk which spends part its 
life in deep water, but comes to the shore at all seasons 
of the year. Having neither acute senses nor means of 
speedy movement, it does not readily discover nor easily 
avoid its enemies, and can be taken with little effort 
by the rudest savages. In all the Aleut mounds opened 
by Mr. Dall, the layer of echinus shells was found.^ In 
most cases it was two or three feet deep, and in one 
mound covered an area of four acres. Nine-tenths of the 
material in this layer consists, as he says, " of the broken 
test and spines of the echinus," and the other tenth con- 



42 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

sists of the shells of other mollusks intermingled with 
some few fish bones. There are no ashes nor coal, nor 
much soil or decayed vegetable matter. Neither is there 
any knife, awl, stone, bone, or shell shaped artificially to an 
edge or point; no skin-scraper; no whorl for a spindle; no 
hook ; no pottery ; no trace of fire or cooking. The only 
articles shaped by art are some hammer stones, with 
slight hollows on opposite sides, for thumb and finger. 
These were used, perhaps, for breaking the shells of the 
echinus.^ Near the top of the stratum are some few net 
sinkers of stone. 

The second layer made up of fish bones, commences 
abruptly as if the echinus-eater had disappeared com- 
pletely and had been succeeded by a different commu- 
nity who depended on fish exclusively for their food. As 
the lowest layer contains little except echinus shells, so 
the second is made up, at least in its lower portion, almost 
entirely of the bones offish, and of species now found in the 
vicinity. As in the first stratum, so in the second, there 
is no trace of fire. The condition of the bones suggests 
that the fish were eaten raw as they now are occasionally 
by the Aleuts. Old men among them attribute the fre- 
quency of disease to the degenerate custom of cooking. 
The fish bone stratum has an average thickness of two 
feet. It contains numerous net sinkers and some few 
spear-heads of stone, but no trace of houses. Two skulls 
of adults found in this stratum have a mean capacity of 
one thousand three hundred and twenty cubic centimetres, 
indicating very small brains. 

The second stratum gradually changes into the third 
or mammal layer, which contains bones of the hair 
seal, the fur seal, the sea lion, the walrus, the whale, 
and many birds. In the lower portions of the stratum 



SEC. 1 6. ALEUT MOUNDS. 43 

are found lance-heads of stone, and in the upper portion, 
lance-heads of bone, and of bone and stone combined, 
some with a cord attached for fastening to a shaft. Be- 
sides these, there are awls, skin-scrapers, stones for rub- 
bing skins, lamps of stone and of unburned clay, remains 
of houses and rare traces of fire. In some mounds the 
last stratum is ten feet thick, and in one, it covers an 
area of twenty acres. Twenty skulls of adults taken 
from this highest stratum have a mean capacity of one 
thousand four hundred and eighteen cubic centimetres, 
or six per cent, more than the mean of the two skulls in 
the fish bone stratum." One stone celt was found. in 
these Aleut mounds ; no axe, or gouge. Mr. Dall thinks 
that a thousand years should be all9wed for the accumu- 
lation of the echinus layer and twice as long for each of 
the two later strata. 

Many of these Aleut islands are distant twenty miles 
or more from the nearest land, and their inhabitants 
must have had boats, the possession of which in modern 
times has been accompanied in every case by edge tools, 
weapons and fire. If any quadruped or bird had the 
habit of carrying moUusks to a common feeding place on 
the shore of tide water, we might doubt whether the 
lower stratum of these mounds were of human origin. 
But no brute has such a habit. 

The exclusive dependence of the Aleuts of the first 
stratum on the echinus for food, suggests that they were 
lower in culture, at least in some respects, than any tribe 
that has existed in historical times. It is worthy of 
remark that the largest plants on these islands are bushes 
not more than four feet high. Dall supposes tKat after 
the people began to kill seals, and to cover themselves 
with skins, they may have warmed themselves occasion- 



44 ^ HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

ally by standing over grass fires with skin cloaks round 
them in such a way as to shut in the smoke and heated 
air.' 

Sec. 17. Pleistocene Europeans. — The white race com- 
prises the civilized Euraryans, some civilized and many 
barbarous Asiatic Aryans, and some barbarous and some 
savage Semites in Arabia and Abyssinia. Whether the 
prehistoric Europeans of the pleistocene age and of the 
later periods of tillage and bronze culture were white 
men, is doubtful. 

Between two glacial periods man lived in Switzerland ;^ 
and there were men in California before the rivers flowed 
in their present beds and before the Sierra Nevada had 
received its present sljape by the aid of elevation, eruption 
and erosion.^ 

Perhaps the earliest men of whom we have numerous 
traces were the drift Europeans, so called because their 
remains are found in the drift or gravel of the ancient 
river channels in France and England, at elevations 
eighty or one hundred feet above the level of the present 
streams. The erosion of the soil or perhaps rock to such 
a depth suggests the probability of the lapse of hun- 
dreds of thousands of years, but there is no distinct proof 
of the length of the intervening period.^ 

In the pleistocene geological age the reindeer, the 
musk ox, the marmot, the arctic fox, the snowy owl, and 
other animals similar to those now found in Lapland, 
and other lands equally near to the pole, existed in Cen- 
tral Europe, while that region had a subfrigid climate. 
With them were the hairy mammoth and man. These 
pleistocene Europeans dwelt in caves, and had neither 
tillage nor polished stone tools, nor pottery, nor woven 
cloth, nor domestic animals. They did not bury nor 



SEC. 17. PLEISTOCENE EUROPEANS. 45 

burn their dead. They had axes and chisels of flint,. 
bows, arrows, arrow-straighteners, barbed fishing and. 
fowling spears, daggers, marrow spoons, needles, skin- 
scrapers and amulets like those of the Eskimos, whom 
they resembled in lack of tillage and of pottery, in indif- 
ference to the dead and in skill as draughtsmen. Unlike 
the Eskimos, they were cannibals and had no dogs. The 
bones of those animals are not found in their caves, and 
such small bones as dogs chew up and swallow are 
numerous. They understood the value of flint as a ma- 
terial for stone knives and arrowheads, and flaked off 
chips from cores. Their food was mostly animal and 
they cooked their meat with hot stones, whether by boil- 
ing or baking or both, is uncertain. They broke the 
marrow bones of large quadrupeds and of men for the 
purpose of digging out the fat contents.* 

The cave men continued to live in Central Europe 
from the subfrigid pleistocene to the subtropical or trop- 
ical pleistocene period, when the arctic mammals had. 
disappeared and had been succeeded by the elephant^ 
the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the hyena, and the 
cave lion. During the thousands of years which had 
elapsed in the meantime, there was no perceptible im- 
provement in culture. The later cave dwellers of the 
pleistocene age were like their predecessors in the lack 
of tillage, pottery, and polished stone. Rude as were 
their lives, they were not without a taste for art. In 
France, Britain and Switzerland, the cave men made 
drawings of animals and hunting scenes on bone, horn, 
ivory, and stone, with remarkable action, accuracy of 
proportion, and steadiness of outline — at least, as com- 
pared with similar productions by other savages.^ They 
have left us sketches of the woolly mammoth, of the 



46 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

reindeer feeding, of a horse with a short upright mane, 
of the stag, of the ibex, of the Irish elk, of the cave bear, 
of the seals, and of men. 

Sec. 18. Dccnish Mounds. — ^The earliest traces of men 
who had polished stone tools are found in the peat bogs 
and villag-e mounds of Denmark. These bog's contain 
the remains of three distinct botanical periods. The 
highest stratum has trunks of the beech, which is now, 
as it was two thousand years ago, the characteristic tree 
of the country. Under the beech, is an oak stratum, 
with the pedunculated oak in the upper and the sessile 
oak in the lower portion. Still lower is a third stratum 
of the scotch fir, containing many trunks three feet thick. 
This tree is not now found in Denmark, and when planted 
there does not thrive. The climate must have changed 
since the Scotch fir grew there in forests of large trees. 
Under one of the logs in a Danish bog was found a flint 
shaped by man — proof that men lived in the Scotch fir 
period. 

Contemporaneous, presumably, with the fir, are some 
of the shell mounds, now from one foot to twenty feet 
above the level of high tide. Some of them are three 
hundred yards long, sixty wide and three high. Their 
material is a mixture of shells, bones, ashes, charcoal 
and earth. The shells of the oyster are abundant though 
that moUusk does not live in the modern Baltic, the 
water of which is too brackish for it. The shells of the 
cockle, mussel, and periwinkle are much larger than the 
shells of the same species found now in the same waters. 
This is another evidence that when these mounds were 
built up, the Baltic had a larger proportion of salt in its 
water and had a wider connection with the ocean than 
at present. 



SEC. 19. SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS. 4/ 

Among the common birds was the penguin, which 
long since disappeared from Europe, but survives in 
Greenland. The Danes of the fir period had edge tools 
of polished stone, but no metals, no cultivated plants, 
and no domestic animal save the dog. They caught the 
cod, herring and flounder in the sea, and they killed the 
capercailzie or grouse that eats the buds of the Scotch 
fir. No bones of mammoth, elephant, rhinoceros or 
reindeer are found in these mounds. The skulls of the 
people are small and similar to those of the Lapps. ^ 

Sec. 19. Szuiss Lake Dwellings. — The largest body 
of information about prehistoric savages in any part of 
the world, is derived from relic beds found in various 
lakes of Switzerland. There archaeologists have found 
tools and weapons of stone, bone, horn, and wood, 
household utensils of wood, pottery, and stone, the re- 
mains of houses and their furniture, the refuse of kitch- 
ens and stables, besides boats, baskets, mats, cloth, nets, 
thread, leather, toys and ornaments. These things had 
lain there undisturbed for thousands of years, until they 
were discovered, collected, studied and described, about 
the middle of the Nineteenth century. 

One hundred and thirty-three prehistoric village sites 
in sixteen Swiss lakes are known. Of such villacres the 
lake of Neuchatel has thirty-six, the lake of Geneva 
twenty-four, and other lakes, smaller numbers. Of the 
total number, thirty-three when last inhabited were in 
the culturestep of stone ; twenty-two in that of bronze ; 
seventeen it that of iron ; and in regard to sixty-one, 
there is no distinct statement of the cultural condition, 
perhaps, because since their discovery, their sites have 
always been too deeply covered with water to permit 
a satisfactory examination. 



48 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Most of these villages were built on piles in water 
from two to twelve feet deep, when the lakes were at 
their lowest level. The piles were from three to eight 
inches thick, and were driven from three to five feet into 
the mud. In the villages of the stone culturestep, the 
only ones to be considered here, the piles before driving 
were sharpened at the bottom with fire or by stone axes ; 
and at the top were morticed to hold beams on which 
were laid floors of poles or rude planks. The houses 
were of poles wattled with twigs, plastered on the sides 
with clay, and on the roof thatched with straw. The 
outer rows of piles were wattled, and in some villages 
stones were placed around them to steady them. Walks 
on piles led from the land to the platform. 

Such a pile foundation not only cost much labor, but 
after completion, was, in many respects, less convenient 
than the shore for a village site. In case of fire it was 
difficult to save young children, cattle and food, which 
were kept there ; and through holes in the floors, tools, 
cattle, and children would occasionally fall. Such ob- 
jections were doubtless evident to the villagers, but they 
were more than counterbalanced by the importance of 
having sites relatively secure against sudden attacks of 
human enemies. These villages were built for constant 
residence, not for occasional refuge. 

In some few cases, the lake villages, instead of stand- 
ing on piles, were supported by an artificial foundation 
made by sinking rafts of brush loaded with stone or 
gravel, and kept in place by piles. 

Of the thirty Swiss villages known to be of the stone 
age, mentioned by Keller, fifteen are in the lake of Con- 
stance, seven in that of Neuchatel, and one each in a 
number of other lakes. 



SEC. 19. SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS. 49 

Wheat, barley, millet, caraway and poppy were culti- 
vated ; the seeds of the poppy and caraway being used 
for flavoring. Tillage seems to have received much 
attention, for manure was saved for agrioultural purposes. 
Wild fruits, berries and nuts, including apples, pears, 
plums, cherries, grapes, strawberries, blackberries, beech- 
nuts and walnuts, were gathered for food. Domestic 
animals were numerous. The cow, the urus, the horse, 
the sheep, the goat and the pig were stabled occasionally 
at least, and perhaps every night in the pile villages. A 
large part of the animal food of the people was however 
obtained by the chase of wild animals. 

Pottery shaped by hand was abundant. In some cases 
the clay for it was mixed with powdered charcoal, or 
with small pieces of granite, silicious rock or partially 
burned limestone. Many o'f the pots for cooking had 
conical bottoms which rested in a clay ring, a pattern 
adopted perhaps for the purpose of diminishing the danger 
of burning the cooked food. Bowls and platters were 
made of wood and steatite. Large pans were perforated 
as if for making cheese. 

Pieces of yarn, thread, cord, rope, cloth woven on 
different methods and matting are found. Some houses 
had large stocks of flax, as if belonging to professional 
weavers. Fishing lines were made of flax, and were set 
with baited hooks. For raising such lines, the prehis- 
toric Swiss lake dweller had thearpion, a peculiar dredg- 
ing hook, now used for the same purpose in the same 
place. Among the relics are netting pins, crochet hooks, 
hairpins, and combs. Glass and nephrite from Asia, flint 
from Germany or France and amber from the shores of 
the Baltic furnish evidence of traffic with remote lands. 

These Swiss lake dwellers of the stone culturestep were 

4 



50 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

superior to any modern savages. Their possession of 
the cow, sheep, goat, pig and horse as domestic animals ; 
their system of keeping them in stables ; their cultivation 
of wheat, barley and flax ; and the construction of their 
pile houses, when considered together, indicate that they 
had advanced much farther than the Tahitians. 

The wheat, barley and flax cultivated by the Swiss 
lake villagers had been brought from Asia, and probably 
the cow, the horse, the sheep, the goat and the pig, bred 
in stables on piles, were first domesticated systematically 
on the same continent. Possibly the lake dwellers were 
Aryans who, accustomed to cultivating the soil and keep- 
ing herds in their Asiatic home, brought animals and 
seeds with them in their westward migration, and thus 
introduced them into Europe. 

The small proportion of bronze and iron relics found 
in most of the Swiss lake villages which were occupied 
after the introduction of metals, implies that these settle- 
ments had continued in the stone culturestep for many 
centuries. The moor villages of Italy, the Scotch and 
Irish crannoges or strongholds built in swamps, are, in 
many points, analogous to the Swiss lake villages, but 
do not give us any important additional information 
about the stone age. 



CHAPTER III. 

INDUSTRY. 

Sec. 20. Fire. — Of the important arts acquired by man, 
the eariiest may have been those of making edge-tools, 
of using articulate speech and of taming fire.^ Some 
Australians and Tasmanians'' are the only modern sav- 
ages who have not known how to kindle fire, but they 
possessed it, kept it burning continually, and carried it 
it with them carefully, when moving. There are many 
countries where fire may be obtained from natural sources, 
but to get it occasionally by accident and then to use it 
for only a few hours is very different from taming it so 
that it shall always be ready to render service in every 
hut or group of people. Without such taming, man 
would perhaps never have ventured far from the tropical 
region in which he had his origin. If he had not estab- 
lished himself in the temperate zone he never would 
Jhave reached his present intellectual development. 
Besides protecting him against cold and carnivorous 
beasts, fire rendered many kinds of food more palatable 
and more digestible to him, and stimulated him to carry his 
provisions to a place of assemblage and companionship 
where the cooking could be done conveniently. Thus it 
became a great aid to sociability, and gave a higher value 
to the woman who became its custodian and the chief 
advocate of the social feelings connected with the do- 

(50 



52 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

mestic hearth.' The construction of the kindling appa- 
ratus, the precautions necessary to keep it ready for 
immediate use, the necessities of borrowing and of trans- 
porting fire, and the inconveniences resulting from its 
occasional extinction, when it could not be kindled 
again soon, were stimulants to thought, and to mutual 
helpfulness. There was presumably a condition in which, 
the lack of fire was the characteristic feature of an earl}r 
culturestep, but of this stage of human growth we have 
no certain remains. 

In Australia fire is kindled by rubbing a hard stick im 
the groove of a stick of soft wood, until enough heat is 
evolved to set fire to wood dust, shavings or tinder. The 
fire drill, of hard wood pressing on a hole in soft wood^ 
is turned between the palms in Polynesia ; by a string" 
pulled first one way then the other in Dakota and the 
Eskimo region ; like a carpenter's brace in the Iroquois 
region, and in some countries by a loose bowstring fast- 
ened to the top and worked pump fashion. In western 
Africa the necessary heat is obtained by rubbing stone 
on wood with sand between them ; in Malaysia, by strik- 
ing a bamboo splinter with flint. The taming of fire was 
a necessaiy result of the custom of making tools and 
weapons of wood and stone.* 

Sec. 21. Non-tilling Culture. — Many eminent archaeol- 
ogists have followed Lubbock in dividing savages into the 
paleolithic and neolithic, those of the old or rough, and 
those of the new or polished stone. The former shaped 
their stone tools entirely by fracture ; the latter rounded 
and polished off the fractured surface of certain tools. 
The distinction between savage tribes on this point has 
small influence on their manner of life, and little cul- 
ture-historical importance. After taking a comprehen- 



SEC. 21. NON-TILLING CULTURE. 53 

sive view of the savages known to civilized observation, 
we shall find that they properly belong to two main 
classes ; those who do not and those who do till the 
ground. 

If some civilized men were cast, without any product 
of art, on an uninhabited island similar in its geological, 
botanical, and zoological features to Great Britain, the 
tool for which they would first, feel an urgent want would 
be a knife, and the material of which they would first 
make it would probably be the shell of a mollusk or 
the bone of a mammal, either of which they could find 
^vithout long" search. The bone would be better in its 
form, the shell in its hardness. As these materials would 
furnish the first knives to civilized men, under the cir- 
cumstances supposed, so they presumably supplied the 
iirst to primitive men. 

But after a time, those savages discovered that various 
"kinds of stone could be shaped into knives with less labor, 
or would take a sharper or harder edge and a more con- 
venient form, than shell or bone. Many centuries elapsed, 
perhaps, before it was found that from a rough cyl- 
inder of flint, chert or obsidian, eight inches long and six 
inches thick, a hundred knives as long as the block and 
an inch and a half wide, with a sharp edge on each side, 
could be split off in half an hour by one man. Some 
ilakes were shaped into chisels, awls, borers, scrapers, 
arrowheads, and spear-heads ; and when the lump was 
too small for splitting again, it was made into an axe.^ 

Obsidian made the sharpest but least durable of the 
flake knives, the material being much more brittle than 
flint. Flake razors of obsidian were used by Aztec bar- 
bers, but a dozen were sometimes ruined in shaving one 
man. Flint and chert were at first obtained for knives 



54 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

from loose lumps found on the surface of the ground or 
in the beds of streams ; but at a later time were dug; 
from quarries.^ Flake knives were never polished, even: 
after the custom of polishing stone chisels and axes was 
well established. 

Sec. 22. Tilling Savagisin. — The introduction of till- 
age had an immense influence on savage culture. It 
gave an increased stock, and a regular supply of food,, 
and a permanent home ; it led to an increased density of 
population ; it accumulated property and furnished men 
to defend it ; it made a demand for systematic and divided- 
labor. It served as a foundation for many other indus- 
trial arts. If it did not give birth to canoe building, pot- 
tery, weaving, stone polishing, and the breeding of do- 
mestic animals, it at least furnished the means and 
motives under which they reached their highest develop- 
ment in savage culture. 

Whether men tilled the ground before they polished 
stone is doubtful, but the two arts were not far apart irt 
the time of their origin. The first stone tools to be pol- 
ished were perhaps chisels, and after them may have 
come axe heads. Unlike knives, these could not be flaked 
off by a single blow or one movement of pressure, nor 
could a satisfactory edge be given to them by fracture ; 
nor was the amount of stone so small that it could be 
thrown away with indifference. It was easier to make a. 
new knife of obsidian or flint than to sharpen an old one;, 
not so with an axe head or a large chisel. The flake 
knives were thin and at their edges brittle, and therefore 
soon worn out. But the axe was relatively thick and 
blunt, and could be made of hard, tough stone that would 
not flake off into knives. The stone axe head was a. 
notable contribution to savage culture. On account of 



SEC. 22. TILLING SAVAGISM. 55 

its weight, it could be used in a blow with considerable 
momentum. Although a poor implement for cutting 
wood, it was through a long era the best obtainable, and 
in the process of making clubs, canoes, poles and spears, 
was especially serviceable in clearing away coal and half- 
burned wood. 

The perforations in axe heads for the handles, were 
made by dropping water on the hot stone in some cases, 
in others by hammering and grinding. The battle-axes 
of the aborigines of New Britian were made in the former 
manner. By attaching a handle to it, the axe head was 
converted into an axe, with an important addition to its 
impetus and efficiency, and by turning the edge in an- 
other direction, it could be changed into an adze. 

Many writers have accepted the idea that pasturage 
precedes tillage in the development of culture, but they 
produce no proof, and the best direct evidence, that of 
the Redmen, is against them. In the basin of the Missis- 
sippi we find great numbers of large indigenous rumi- 
nants — buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and goat — animals well 
fitted by nature for domestication, in the midst of tilling 
savages, who never domesticate them. An early Spanish 
writer, Gomara, asserts that the buffalo was tamed on the 
basin of the Rio Grande, and Alexander Humboldt men- 
tioned his statement as perhaps correct ; but it lacks con- 
firmation and deserves no credence. Pastoral communi- 
ties are usually lower in culture than those which de- 
pend for their support on tillage ; but it does not follow 
that pasturage is the earlier occupation. In some coun- 
ties, herds are considered preferable as property to tilled 
fields, because they can be driven away from marauding 
enemies or because they are better adapted to a dry 
climate or mountainous surface. In many extensive re- 



$6 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

gions tillage has preceded pasturage ; it cannot be proved 
that in any has pasturage preceded tillage. It seems 
that the habits of economy that grew up with the cultiva- 
vation of the soil, were necessary to convert pet animals 
into herds. 

Sec. 23. Spear, Bow, etc. — The savage tools of the 
chase and of war, distinctively classed as weapons, are 
the inventions of long experience and much ingenuity. 
The Kaffirs and many Negro and Polynesian tribes take 
no offensive weapon into battle save the spear, which on 
the other hand is not used by the Bushmen and had an 
inferior place among the American savages. In portions 
of Polynesia it was thrown so dexterously, that its aim 
was more accurate at fifty yards than that of the musket 
in the hands of Cook's sailors. 

Some tribes have discovered that the whirling of 
a spear or arrow on its longitudinal axis corrects the 
deflecting influences of bends and unequal weights on the 
sides. The whirl is given by a twist in the shaft, in the 
head, or in feather attachments, or by an unwinding thong, 
which last serves also, as if it were a prolongation of the 
arm, to give additional impetus.^ Instead of thongs, 
some tribes use a stick two feet long, or a stick and 
thong together, all of which devices are akin to slings in 
their influence on the missile.'' 

The common sling is little used by most savage tribes, 
but is a favorite with the Fuegians, New Caledonians and 
Hawaiians. The New Caledonians give an acorn shape 
to their sling stones as the ancient Greeks and Romans 
did to their leaden sling shots.^ Sling balls of burned 
clay were made by the tilling prehistoric Europeans, 
perhaps for the purpose of throwing them red-hot into 
the huts of their enemies.* 



SEC. 23, SPEAR, BOW, ETC. 5/ 

The thong-balls or bolas, stone balls two inches and a 
half in diameter, fastened together in couples or triplets, 
by a thong about six feet long attached to each ball, are 
used by the Patagonians, Araucans and some other South 
Americans with much effect in the chase of the guanaco, 
ostrich and horse, being thrown so as to tie up the ani- 
mal's legs. The long sling and considerable weight of 
the balls make them effective at a distance of a hun- 
dred yards.^ The Eskimos have a similar implement 
called the birdsling, consisting of six or seven oval 
weights, an inch long and half an inch thick, each 
attached to a cord thirty inches long, all the cords being 
fastened together at the other end. These birdslings tie 
up the wings of geese and ducks as the bolas tie up the 
legs of South American game. 

The combination of strength with elasticity required for 
the bow is not found in the timber of some regions, and 
there bows are not made, or the wood is brought from 
other places. Most of the savage bows are of the ordi- 
nary size and pattern, but some in the valley of the 
Parana are so large that the Indian when he shoots lies 
down, and uses both feet and both hands in shooting 
heavy arrows headed with burning cotton to set fire to 
the enemy's huts. The Veddahs of Ceylon have bows 
which they stretch in the same way. The cross-bow 
is known to few savages, but the Fans have it. The 
Abipones have a bow with a cup in the cord to throw a 
bullet an inch and a half in diameter.® 

The bow is not used by the Australians, Tasmani- 
ans, Kaffirs, Dinkas, aboriginal Cubans, Jamaicans or 
Pampas. In most of Polynesia, it is a plaything for 
boys, not a weapon for men. The Redmen, Bushmen and 
some negro tribes use it more than the spear. 



58 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Small arrows eight inches long are thrown through 
blow-tubes, ordinarily for killing game and on rare occa- 
sions for war, in Malaysia, Melanesia, Brazil, Paraguay, 
the valley of the Orinoco, Mexico, Central America, 
Chile and Peru. The tube is about eight feet long and 
has a caliber of a quarter of an inch. The utmost range 
is forty yards, and there is little accuracy of aim beyond 
twenty. The blow-tube arrow is tipped with virulent 
poison, so that a very small quantity of it will quickly 
prove fatal to a large quadruped. 

Poisoned arrows are thrown from the bow by the 
Bushmen, Bechuanas, Congoese, Kordofanese, Fans, An- 
damanese, Ajitas, Melanesians, Malays, Floridians, Pimos, 
and Californians. Poisoned stakes and spears are set in 
paths for enemies and game of Bushmen and Hottentots. 

Poison, on the point of the spear or arrow, though 
most frequently used in the chase, is also employed in 
war by many tribes. Creases in the head of the weapon 
protect the venom against loss by rubbing, without pre- 
venting its solution in the warm blood. The poisons are 
taken from many sources, including serpents, insects, 
and the seeds and juices of plants. One of the simplest 
methods of obtaining arrow poison is that of certain Cal- 
ifornian tribes, which irritate rattlesnakes with a deer's 
liver until they bite it repeatedly, throwing their venom 
into it every time. This liver is allowed to putrefy, and 
then the arrowhead is thrust into it. All poisons used 
for killing game are of kinds fatal in the blood but not in 
the stomach ; yet the part struck by the weapon is usu- 
ally thrown away. 

Sec. 24. Clubs, etc. — Clubs are of many kinds, heavy 
or light, long or short, to be kept in the hand or to be 
thrown, and made of wood, bone, or stone. Heavy 



SEC. 24. CLUBS, ETC. 59 

clubs are used mainly in war; the lighter ones in the 
chase. A long, heavy club is carried by many Polyne- 
sian nobles as a symbol of their rank, on all ceremonial 
occasions. 

The characteristic weapon of New Zealand is the merai 
or patoopatoo, eighteen inches long, five inches wide in 
the blade which is shaped like a beaver's tail, and two 
inches thick in the handle, tapering to half an inch at the 
point of the blade. A cord at the end of the handle 
slips over the wrist to prevent loss. The preferred 
material is jade, though to shape and polish it without 
metal requires the labor of months.^ Sometimes it is 
made of a bone of a whale. The Quichuans made a like 
weapon of brown jasper. 

The kerry, the chief weapon of the Quaiquai Hotten- 
tot, with a stem about three feet long and a round knob, 
nearly three inches in diameter at the end,^ is thrown 
with much effect in the chase. The rackum, a club a 
foot long with pointed ends, is used for the same purpose 
by the same tribe. A throw-club of the Parana valley 
is two feet long and thicker at the ends than in the mid- 
dle. The Fannese have stone throw-clubs, a foot long, 
pointed at both ends, and two inches wide and an inch 
thick in the middle. 

Neither the sword nor any weapon similar to it in 
form and method of use, is known to the non-tilling sav- 
ages. Its value in war does not become evident until 
warriors learn to charge in compact masses. Then long 
flat stones, and bones with sharp edges, and clubs into 
which sharks teeth and thin pieces of bone, stone or 
shell are fastened, become weapons similar to swords. 

The boomerang is a flat or flattish crooked throw-club, 
about thirty inches long, with two arms of equal or un- 



60 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

equal length, uniting at an angle varying from ninety to 
one hundred and seventy degrees. The width may be 
two inches and the thickness half or three-quarters of an 
inch. One side is usually flat, and the other curved or 
beveled to the edge. Held by the longer arm, if one be 
longer than the other, with the flat side down, and 
thrown with much force, it flies away whirling round 
on its corner, as a center of rotation, resembling in its 
motions the flight of a dodging bird, usually pursuing a 
curved course, now going nearly straight, then turning 
short corners, and sometimes coming back and falling to 
the ground very near the point from which it is thrown. 
The principles involved in the movement of this weapon 
are so obtruse that they have never been explained satis- 
factorily, and of course they were never understood by 
savages. No two boomerangs take exactly the same 
course, even when thrown at the same angle and with 
the same power ; and it is impossible for anyone, unless 
familiar with the special implement, to know how to 
avoid it. The skillful thrower must often dodge quickly 
to escape a blow from its return. On account of 
its winged flight and the impossibility of calculating its 
course, it is an effective weapon for striking flocks of 
birds in the air. The boomerang is the characteristic 
throw-club of the Australians; and a crooked throw-club 
is also known to the Lower Californians,^ the Moquis,* 
the Soudanese,^ and was used by the ancient Egyptains,^ 
and Assyrians.' 

Shields are made of wood, or of wooden frames cov- 
ered with hide. Lengths vary from two to six feet ; and 
widths from five to twenty-four inches. Some long New 
Guinea shields have sharp points suitable for inflicting a 
fatal wound on a prostrate enemy. The very light shield 



SEC. 25. OMNIVOROUS. 61 

may be used either to stop the approaching weapon or 
to touch it and divert its course. 

Generally savages wear no defensive armor fastened 
to the body, but the New Zealanders and some Africans 
have coats of thick matting or padding, and the Haidahs 
have breastplates of twigs interwoven with rawhide. 

Sec. 25. Omnivorous. — Man is the distinctively om- 
nivorous animal. His dentition, his palate, and his di- 
gestive organs prepare him to eat all those animals and 
plants which contain much starch, sugar or albumen, 
without poison. Lean meat, fat, gristle, skin, grain, fruit, 
legume, tuber, nut, bark and insects are all welcome to 
his stomach. The nitrogenous character of grain and 
lean meat make them indispensable to his high develop- 
ment ; and on the other hand, his digestive organs have 
not the large size and peculiar form suitable to derive 
great activity from a diet consisting exclusively of fruit 
or grass. He must have grain or meat, and since the 
former could not be obtained in regular supply by sav- 
ages, meat was necessary for them, and until population 
became dense, and game scarce, they always had it. In 
every clime, in every continent, and in every grade of 
culture his preferred food is supplied by the animal king- 
dom ; and not satisfied with the meat of brutes, many 
savage tribes have delighted in feasts on the flesh of 
their own species. By his mental and physical capaci- 
ties, man is impelled to attack and enabled to slay the 
most ferocious carnivores and the largest pachyderms. 
He strikes the bird in the air and the fish in the water ; 
he takes the rabbit in its burrow, the seal on the ice, and 
the whale in the open sea. Against his attack neither 
the shell of the mollusk, the quill of the porcupine, nor 
the venom of the rattlesnake gives secure protection. 



62 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

The excitement of the chase is one of his greatest pleas- 
ures, and it increases with the activity and defensive 
power of the game. 

In many countries where there is Httle division of 
labor, and no systematic exchange of products between 
different regions, the people must derive their food from 
local and often from indigenous products, and may be 
limited for a considerable part of the year to a single ar- 
ticle, such as the seal in arctic America, the salmon on 
the banks of the Columbia, the buffalo in the basin of the 
Missouri, the lichen in Iceland, taro, breadfruit, or pan- 
danus fruit in portions of Polynesia and Micronesia, cas- 
sava in some, and yucca in other parts of South America, 
sago in Malaysia, shell-fish in many sea-coasts, reindeer 
in subarctic lands, cow's milk in some African, and 
mare's milk, or buffalo's milk, or camel's milk in some 
Asiatic districts. Uniformity of diet becomes offensive 
to palate and stomach, and makes a demand for many fla- 
voring substances that are offensive to the civilized man 
who is accustomed to a considerable variety of food in 
every season. After having eaten nothing but blubber 
and oil for months, the Eskimo becomes hungry for 
meat, as the Gaucho, after an exclusive diet of lean meat, 
longs for fat, and the negro, who has tasted nothing save 
fruit for months, has an extreme craving for animal food. 

Sec. 26. Bread and Meat. — Many savage tribes make 
bread of acorns or seeds, but none have made their 
loaves light by leaven, unless they had learned the art of 
bread-making from people in a higher stage of culture. 
Cakes are made from cassava by the aborigines of the 
Amazon and Orinoco, and from pine tree moss in sea- 
sons of scarcity, by those of the Upper Columbia. 

East of the Mississippi, maize is eaten in the green ear, 



SEC. 26. BREAD AND MEAT. 63 

roasted or boiled ; in succotash, a mixture of the grain 
in the milk cut from the ear and boiled with beans ; in 
mush, in hominy and in bread. Many different flavors 
are used, including maple syrup, walnut oil, hickory milk, 
and bear's fat. Hickory milk, made by mashing hick- 
ory nuts and mixing with water, is added to the dough 
intended for bread, and also to mush and hominy.^ 
Maize meal is made either from the ripe grain or from 
that cooked in the milk, dried and pulverized in a mor- 
tar. Concha, a mixture of roasted maize and lime pre- 
pared by the Indians of the Amazon, is by Herndon 
praised as superior in flavor to green maize roasted. 
Mushrooms are a staple article of diet among the Fue- 
gians, and the fern root among the Ahts of Vancouver 
Island and the Maoris. The Indians of California like to 
have their wild lettuce flavored by the acidulous secre- 
tion from the bodies of red ants. They lay the vegeta- 
ble where the insect will run over it, or they pound an 
ant's nest, and when the irritated inmates come to the 
surface, hold the lettuce over them and the liquid is 
thrown upon it. 

Meat and fish are often eaten raw. The liver of the 
deer and the antelope, and the marrow of the elephant, 
fresh from the carcase, and still warm with the heat of 
life, are delicacies to many white hunters, as to all savages 
familiar with them. In Abyssinia there are feasts in 
which the chief dish is raw beef, cut from a cow tied at 
the door. 

By savages generally, blood as it flows from the living 
quadruped or bird is considered a delicious beverage. 
In many countries the preferred method of killing an 
animal is to cut its throat so that the blood shall flow 
about as fast as a man can drink, and then apply the 



64 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

mouth to the wound. The Gallas and some other Afri- 
cans open veins in the necks of their cows, and, after 
sucking as much blood as they wish, sew up the cut. 
Other tribes bleed their herds into buckets, at regular 
periods, and drink the blood mixed with milk. 

After killing an ostrich, the Bushman turns the blood 
from its carotid artery into its crop, the contents of which 
are eaten while still warm, after they have been mixed 
by rolling the body from side to side. The Araucan 
hangs up a live sheep by its forelegs, cuts its carotid ar- 
tery, which he turns into the windpipe, and after the 
lungs have thus been filled with blood, flavors them with 
salt and pepper, and eats them raw and warm with the 
heat of life. 

Sec. 27. Daintiness. — The savage eats all the accessi- 
ble kinds of food which are used on the tables of civili- 
zation, and many others. Being unable to command a 
constant supply of clean and fresh provisions, he has oc- 
casionally accepted filth and putridity, until, by custom 
and inheritance, they have become welcome to his eyes, 
nose and palate, and in some cases he has even learned 
to prefer them. Many of the Pacific islanders are in the 
habit of burying cooked breadfruit, taro, sweet potatoes, 
and other vegetables, and thus keeping them for months, 
to be eaten after passing the sour stage of fermentation. 
The Otomacs of South America keep their beans in a 
similar manner. A preparation made from the decom- 
posed Afiti fruit, is a favorite sauce in Dahomey. In 
subarctic countries, in portions of Africa and in the 
Solomon Islands, meat enclosed in sealskins is kept for a 
year underground, and when far advanced in decomposi- 
tion, is eaten with relish.^ By many tribes, monkeys, 
opossums, ducks, pigeons and other birds and quadru- 



SEC. 28. SALT AND CLAY. 65 

peds are cooked and eaten with their entrails. A favor- 
ite chowder of the PhiHppine Islands is made by boiling 
the material from a goat's stomach with fish. The green 
matter found in the intestines of large ruminants below 
the stomach is used as a sauce, and the half digested 
herbage from the paunch of an ox is a delicacy to a 
Bongo, as that from a sheep's stomach is to an Abys- 
sinian, and that from a reindeer's stomach to a Chook- 
chee or a Lapp. 

By the savage, as by the carnivorous quadruped, the 
entrails are eaten in preference to the muscular fibre, and 
are the first to be consumed when, in hunger, he obtains 
possession of a carcass. The large intestine, just below 
the stomach, is to him the choice part of an herbivorous 
animal, and after it has been once pressed out rapidly 
between the fingers, is eaten without washing. A small 
portion of the green matter improves the flavor; and the 
same material with gall, is used by the Abyssinians as a 
sauce upon bits of the raw stomach and raw liver of the 
ox mixed together. 

Earthworms, slugs, caterpillers, larvae, dragonflies, bee- 
tles, moths, ants, parasitic insects from the human head 
and body, spiders and maggots all contribute to the sav- 
age bill of fare. Near Moorzuk, on the northern edge of 
the Sahara, a species of worm is prized as an appetizer ; at 
Nyassa, gnats are pressed into cakes to be used as a relish ; 
and in South Africa, the Waiyari eat cakes made of an 
insect similar in appearance to a tick. In Manyuema, 
swarming ants are cleansed of their wings and legs by 
fire and then eaten. White ants are a relish in East 
Africa ; and the Monbuttoos make a fat for the table from 
the male termites. 

Sec. 28. Salt and Clay. — A demand for salt, being a re- 
5 



66 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

suit of a vegetable diet, is not found among the Eskimos, 
Gauchos and many Malay, Papuan, African and North 
American tribes. In portions of Africa and Malaysia, 
the ashes of saline plants are used directly as a substi- 
tute for salt or are leached out and the salt obtained by 
evaporation. Many Polynesian and Melanesian tribes, 
when eating raw fish dip them into sea water, to get the 
saline flavor. 

Clay, red ochre, pulverized soapstone and other kinds 
of earthy matter are eaten as part of their ordinary diet 
by savages in every quarter of the globe. Some tribes 
eat clay only when they have little or no nutritious food 
or when having none save meat, they need something 
else to distend the stomach. When going far to sea, the 
Dyaks take along red ochre to eat if they should catch 
no fish. Edible clay is sold in the markets of Java. The 
Otomacs mix an unctuous clay with other food ;^ in Gam- 
bia a clay, with a piquant odor, is eaten with rice ; and in 
Brazjl a saline clay serves as a substitute for salt. Quids 
of clay are chewed by the Wanyamwuezi, and quids of 
clay mixed with ashes by the Somali. 

Sec. 29. Ca7inibalism. — Cannibalism prevails exten- 
sively among savages, so extensively that Andree calls 
it one of the characteristic diseases of the childhood of 
our race. There are four kinds : the starving, the mili- 
tary, the ecclesiastical and the gourmand. The cannibal- 
ism of starvation is found in the highest as well as in the 
lowest grade of culture. Military cannibalism is the eat- 
ing of a small part of his slain enemy by the successful 
warrior, either as an expression of hatred, as a method 
of appropriating the victim's courage, or as a protection 
against the persecution of the victim's spirit which is for- 
ever destroyed when his heart, his eye or his brain is 



SEC. 29. CANNIBALISM. 6/ 

«eaten. In cases of great animosity, slices of flesh are cut 
from the body of the live prisoner and consumed raw and 
-warm before his eyes, while he is taunted and his tribe 
cursed by the captors. We have accounts of such tor- 
tures by Fijians,^ Tonkaways,^ Apaches^ and Batta Ma- 
lays.* 

Ecclesiastical cannibalism requires priest or people to 
eat part of the human victim sacrificed to the gods, and 
induces the family to eat the body of their relative, 
whether parent or child, brother or sister, who has died 
naturally. The Tarianos and Tucanos of South America 
bury their dead friends, after several months dig them 
up, dry the decomposed flesh over a fire, pulverize it 
-and mix it with their drink. The Australians near 
Carpenteria Bay eat the warriors of their own tribe slain 
in battle, but do not taste the corpses of their enemies. 

Gourmand cannibalism, the eating of human flesh as 
an article of ordinary diet when other food is abundant, 
prevails among the Melanesians generally, the Maoris, the 
Marquesans, the Botocudos, the Tupis, the Caribs, the 
Fans, the Niamniams, the Monbuttoos, the Mandingoes 
and the Bonny negroes. Its existence in prehistoric 
Europe is proved by the finding of human bones cracked 
for their marrow in the caves of France, Spain, Portugal, 
Italy, Belgium and Germany. The threat to '' eat up " an 
enemy common in many African, American, and Polyne- 
sian tribes which have not been cannibals in modern 
times, is doubtless an inheritance from cannibal ancestors. 
Human sacrifices as a part of worship is a survival of 
gourmand cannibalism. That meat which was most 
palatable and most honorable in the feasts of men 
must also be given to the gods ; and the wide prevalence 
of such sacrifices is one of the most striking proofs of 



68 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

the equally wide existence of the custom out of whicfi 
they grew.^ The name of the Atacapa tribe in Louisiana^ 
of the Mohawk in New York, of the Puru in South. 
America, and of the Windigo clan of the Chippeways 
near Lake Superior, all mean man-eater. 

The Fijians carry gourmand cannibalism to its high- 
est development. They call human flesh *' long pig ; "" 
they use special and sacred forks for lifting it ; and one 
chief among them had the credit of having eaten por- 
tions of nine hundred persons. At one Fijian feast, two- 
hundred human victims were eaten ; at another twenty- 
eight captives, after being stunned, were thrown into am 
oven to be roasted alive. At one New Zealand festival 
after a great battle, more than a thousand captives were 
cooked and eaten. The Tupis and some Congoese fattert 
prisoners before killing them ; the Tupinamboos breed 
them for the shambles, and eat the children of male 
slaves by free women of their own tribe or village.. 
Human fat and flesh are offered for sale in the Niamniam-- 
villages, and human flesh is dried for future use by the 
Caribs, Monbuttoos and some Melanesians. 

All savage tribes, accustomed to cannibalism, consider 
human flesh a delicacy. The highest chiefs and most 
active warriors eat most of it ; the very old men and boys 
get a little ; the women none. In Equatorial Africa, asr- 
in New Caledonia, the palms of the hands are considered 
the most delicious morsels, and in the latter country are 
reserved for the priests who, there as elsewhere, demand 
and often obtain the best. The thigh of the man and the 
breast of the woman are preferred in New Britain f the 
arm above the elbow and the thigh, in Fiji.'^ In New^ 
Ireland men are baked in covered pits for three days, and 
then to use a native expression, become as " tender as 



SEC. 29. CANNIBALISM. 69 

grease." The brains are mixed with sago and cocoa-nut 
for the feast.^ 

A peculiar cannibal custom exists in parts of western 
Australia where the bunyabunya grows. About once in 
three years the trees bear an abundant crop of fruit, much 
more than the tribes occupying those districts can con- 
sume. They allow friendly tribes in the vicinity to share 
their fruit harvest, subject to the condition that every 
outside tribe while staying in their domain shall kill one 
■of their own number, as proof that they are not destroy- 
ing any of the quadrupeds, birds or insects of the district, 
and thus diminishing the local stock of animal food, 
iwhich is not offered to the strangers, as there is not 
more than enough for home consumption.^ 

The tribes noted for cannibalism, generally bury their 
dead relatives with respectful ceremony, and depend 
for their supply of human flesh exclusively upon enemies, 
:slaves or strangers. In some regions, however, any per- 
son not belonging to the same clan or village may be 
<eaten. Thus the Fans and Wabembe sell the corpses of 
their friends who die a natural death to the people of the 
jiext village, where they may be eaten without offense. 
The Fans, Vateans, Fannese and Fijians, not content 
with eating fresh corpses of those who die a natural 
death, occasionally feast on bodies after they had been 
l>uried for several days. 

Cannibalism when practiced extensively is an indica- 
tion of superior activity and courage, and is most com- 
mon in tribes which are far from the lowest phases of 
savagism. The Bushmen, Andamanese, Australians gen- 
erally and aborigines of Lower California are not noted 
for fondness for human flesh, though some of them 
taste it occasionally. Among the islanders of the Pacific, 



JO A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

the Fijians and Maoris are distinguished as cannibals and 
warriors ; so are the Fans, Niamniams and Monbuttoos 
in Africa. It would be impossible for poor fighters ta 
obtain large supplies of human flesh. Habitual success^ 
in war implies energy in industrial occupations and com- 
pactness in political organization, and these are to be 
found among the most noted cannibal tribes as compared 
with their neighbors generally. 

Sec. 30. Cooking. — Man is a cooking animal. Every^ 
tribe known to modern observers prepares some of its 
food with fire. Broiling, the simplest method of cooking: 
processes, is rarely practiced in many countries and is- 
impossible in the snow hut of the Eskimos, where the 
only artificial heat is that of a small, smoky lamp, which, 
could not be used for any method of cooking save boil- 
ing. Tradition says that Mohammed prohibited the 
singeing of meat by fire, and perhaps for this reason^ 
many Arabs and some negro tribes under Arab influence 
never broil or fry meat or bake it before an open fire. 

Roasting in hot ashes or under coals, was perhaps the 
second cooking process in the order of its discovery^ 
Before roasting their fish, the western Australians wrap 
it in aromatic bark which gives it a delicate flavor.^ The 
Polynesians bake pigs, dogs, men, taro and other food ini 
pits which on rare occasions may be eight feet deep and 
fifteen feet in diameter. Red-hot stones at bottom, sides 
and top supply the heat; which is retained by a cov- 
ering of earth, and the baking may continue from two^ 
hours to three days.^ The Patagonians cook the Ameri- 
can ostrich in the open air by putting hot stones in the 
cavity of the body after the entrails have been taken out.^' 
The Danakils of Africa cover a hen, feathers entrails and 
all, with wet clay, and put the lump in the fire to cook.*' 



SEC. 30. COOKING. 71 

Among the Aleuts meat to be cooked is put between two 
concave and platter-like stones, the joint being covered 
with wet clay, before the vessel is put in the fire.^ 

Water is raised to the boiling point for cooking pur- 
poses with hot stones in cocoa-nut shells by the Kings- 
mill Islanders;^ in gourd shells by the Georgia Indians; in 
birch bark pots by some Missouri tribes ;^ in wooden 
troughs by the Kamtschatkans, Columbia River and Van- 
couver Island tribes ; in watertight baskets by the Hai- 
dahs, Yukons, Ostiaks and Californians ; in skins with 
the hair side down resting in earth holes, by various 
North American tribes, including the Assiniboins, whose 
tribal name means skin-boiler, and in earth holes lined 
with clay by the Australians of the lower Murray valley.^ 
The Malays sometimes boil their food in a joint of bam- 
boo, resting with its closed end on the ground, and lean- 
ing over the fire so that it does not burn through. 

AH the methods of preserving food known to civilized 
men are represented by similar processes among savages. 
The latter do not can provisions, but they cover them 
with mud, coat them with tallow or bury them in the 
earth. They smoke, salt, and freeze. They dry fruits in 
the sun and meat in the sun or over fire. They boil, 
dry and pulverize green corn, or they bake it in pits un- 
til it loses its moisture while preserving its flavor. The 
sap of the cocoa tree is boiled into a syrup by the Gilbert 
Islanders and by some Africans. 

Fish are dried, beaten into a powder and packed away 
in sacks by Columbia River Indians, Kamtschatkans and 
various tribes of Africa and South America. It is said 
that in the valley of the Zambesi, fish is preserved for years 
without loss of its wholesome and nutritious qualities, by 
covering it with the poisonous juice of the mandioca.® 



72 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

After drying the meat of the buffalo, the Redmen pack 
it in a bag of hide, which they fill with melted tallow. 
This pemmican keeps more than a year.^^ In California 
grasshoppers and in parts of Africa grasshoppers and 
winged ants are singed, cleansed of wings and legs and 
mashed into cakes. Locusts are treated in a similar 
manner by Kaffirs. 

The Redmen east of the Mississippi dry plums, persim- 
mons, pumpkins, green corn, deer meat, muscles, oysters 
and eels. They boil the sap of the maple tree into a 
syrup, into a wax-like candy, and into crystallized sugar. 
Near Lake Superior, the pulp of wild plums is boiled 
with maple syrup until it will harden when cold, and is 
then called maple-plum-leather.^^ Plum leather is made by 
boiling the plum pulp without syrup. In the same region, 
wild cherries are boiled down to a cherry-butter which is 
buried in the earth for winter use.^'^ Green maize is 
boiled, dried and pulverized by the Redmen east of the 
Mississippi. The Chippeways dry whortleberries and 
wild roots over a fire.^^ The Californians soak their 
acorns in two waters to take out their bitterness and then 
dry them.^* Sweet potatoes are dried by the Maoris, and 
ombova leaves by the Damaras. 

Many fruits and tubers which are poisonous in their 
natural condition are converted by savage art into whole- 
some food. The cassava root abounds in a strong poison, 
which comes out when the fibre has been rasped, and 
freed from its juice by pressing and boiling in two waters. 
Of all the tropical tubers it is the most extensively used 
for food. The discovery of the method of fitting it for 
the table, and the invention of the processes of rasping 
and pressing it, do much credit to the ingenuity of the 
South American Indians.^^ Among the other poisonous 



SEC. 32. GRINDING. 73 

or acrid vegetables made nutritious by savage processes 
of cooking or soaking, are an African yam, the Tangare 
bean of South Africa,^^ the karaka berry of New Zealand,^^ 
the arisarum vulgare root of Morocco,^^ a tuber of Virginia 
and another of Utah, the leaves of the taro ;^' the root of 
the ti,^® the soaproot and the horse chestnut of California, 
and the cycas fruits of New Guinea.^^ 

Sec. 31. Meals. — In most savage tribes, it is the cus- 
tom to have two formal meals in the day, the breakfast 
in the middle of the forenoon, and the dinner about 
sunset, but some tribes have only the latter, eating at 
other times as hunger and the food supply may suggest. 
Having no chairs, tables, tablecloths or plates, their 
manners at meals are unceremonious. The men eat by 
themselves ; the women and children afterwards. If 
there is a cooking pot, it is usually left on the fire or 
near it, and around it the eaters squat or sit down. With 
unwashed hands they reach in, drag out the meat, and 
throw it back after cutting off a portion or tearing it off 
with their teeth. The pot and the cook are seldom 
washed. Forks are used with human flesh in Fiji, and 
spoons with porridge and soup by the Redmen, but are 
unknown to savages generally. Poi or taro porridge, 
a favorite dish in Polynesia, is taken from the bowl by a 
quick turn of the figures and then held over the open 
mouth which catches the drip. According to its thick- 
ness and the method used in getting a mouthful, the dish 
is called two-finger or three-finger poi. 

Sec. 32. Griiiding. — Seeds and nuts are crushed or 
ground for bread or porridge in mortars or on flat stones. 
The mortars are hollowed out in loose stones, in the bed- 
rock where it appears on the surface of the earth, or in 
the stumps of trees. The movable stone mortar has its 



74 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

place by the domestic fire, and like the latter is under 
the charge of the woman, and adds to her social influence.^ 
Numerous half oval stones, shaped by hand by prehis- 
toric savages, were presumably used for crushing seeds.^ 
In the Soudan, a woman grinds in one day as much grain 
as a man can eat in six days.^ 

Sec. 33. Water and Milk. — Although many tribes 
are in the habit of preparing fermented liquors, still the 
common beverage, at or rather after meals, for while 
eating they rarely drink, is water, which they get at 
some adjacent stream, lifting it to the mouth in the hollow 
of the hand, bringing the face down to its level, or wad- 
ing in and flinging it into the mouth by a rapid motion 
of the fingers. The process last mentioned is common 
in New Caledonia and Kafifirland.^ In some arid regions, 
savages show much ingenuity in finding and storing 
water. The Bushmen have learned that they can suck 
up water through a reed from sand several feet below the 
surface, where there is so little moisture that if a well 
were dug no water would collect in the hole. If water 
is wanted for future use, a woman fills her mouth, the 
contents of which are then allowed to trickle down a 
straw into a small hole in the empty shell of an ostrich 
^gg- .Such shells are buried at marked spots on a long 
journey in a desert, for use on the return.^ Roots 
abounding with moisture are found by the Kaffirs with 
the help of thirsty tame apes, which, led about by a 
string, hunt for the scent of the water-root until they find 
it, and then begin to dig, whereupon the master unearths 
the prize and rewards the finder v/ith a portion.^ Africa 
also has a water tree, which preserves the precious fluid 
in its cavities and yields it up to the experienced traveler. 
Among the Eskimos one of the occupations of the 



SEC. 34. BEER, ETC. 75 

women is the melting of snow over a lamp, to furnish 
water for drinking and cooking. Washing is a rarity,. 
and when that operation is applied to the face another 
liquid is used. 

Modern savages have no milk-yielding animals save 
those obtained from men in higher conditions of culture. 
The cows and goats of the Africans are not indigenous 
in their continent, or certainly not in the equatorial or 
southern portions of it, and were presumably obtained 
from Western Asia. 

The wealth of the Kaffirs and of many other African 
tribes is mostly in their cows, and for them cow's milk is 
the staff of life, as camel's milk is for some Arabs ; mare's 
milk for some Central Asiatics ; and buffalo's milk for 
some tribes in Hindostan. All the milk-drinking Afri- 
can tribes milk into wooden buckets or water-tight bas- 
kets, which are never washed, and from which in a kw 
minutes a sour fermentation is communicated to the 
liquid. When away from his milk buckets, the Afri- 
can may suck the sweet milk from the cow, but he pre- 
fers it sour.* The Kalmucks do not drink their mare's 
milk until it has turned sour. 

Sec. 34. Beer, etc. — In lands where the cocoa-nut 
grows, its juice is a favorite drink, equally palatable and 
nutritious. The fresh saps of the maple, birch, palm, and 
American aloe are used as beverages, but are too insipid 
to reach high favor, and are more prized for fermentation 
or for conversion into syrups by boiling. The Soudanese 
have a nutritious and acidulous drink called abrey, made 
by mixing doora (which has been ground, made into 
dough, allowed to turn sour and dried) with water.^ la 
the valley of the Amazon, the nut of the guarana tree 
is made into paste, dried, grated, and mixed with water 



76 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

to make a common and much prized drink. The paste 
sometimes sells to civilized visitors for sixteen dollars a 
pound.^ The Australians drink an infusion of the blos- 
soms of a species of eucalyptus. Whether savages origi- 
nated the use of any hot decoction as a beverage is doubt- 
ful. No hot drink was in use among the savage tribes 
of Africa, America, or Polynesia when they first became 
Icnown in modern times to European travelers. 

The natives of the arctic and subarctic climes drink 
the oil of fish and marine mammals, either fresh or ran- 
cid ; and some tropical savages drink butter which after 
l)eing well boiled and skimmed, is a liquid at a warm 
temperature and remains sweet for a long time. 

Fermented drinks are unknown to the Australians, 
Puegians, Patagonians, Eskimos, and most Redmen in 
their aboriginal condition, but are extensively used 
among most other savages. Beers, if that name may 
properly be given to such beverages, are made from the 
saps of the cocoa palm, date palm, sugar cane, and Amer- 
ican aloe, from the milk of the cocoa-nut, from the juices 
of various berries and fruits, from infusions of honey, from 
various tubers and grains.^ Some African and South 
American savages make their beer from grain which, 
after sprouting, has been killed by heat, a process per- 
liaps learned from civilized men. In Africa and South 
America maize and cassava cakes, and in Polynesia and 
the West Indies sweet potatoes are chewed and spit out 
into vessels in which the masticated material with some 
Avater is allowed to ferment. The beer thus made is con- 
sidered much superior to that prepared from the same 
material without saliva. 

The favorite and only stimulating drink of many Poly- 
nesian and other Pacific islands is made from the ava 



oiiC. 35. NARCOTICS. yj 

root, by spitting the masticated material into bowls (the 
weight being doubled by the saliva)^ adding water and 
straining. The liquid without fermentation is then 
immediately ready for drinking. The flavor is compared 
by one European to soapsuds with a touch of essence of 
ginger f by another to a mixture of rhubarb and mag- 
nesia.® In small quantities the effect is exhilarating ; ia 
large quantities, intoxicating. When much used for a. 
long time it causes a skin disease suggestive of leprosy. 
It is a sacred beverage prohibited to women and slaves^ 
prominent in religious festivals, and never prepared 
except with solemn ceremonies, including an invocation, 
and libation to the gods. 

Sec. 35. Narcotics. — Tobacco, now the leading nar- 
cotic of the world, was known in the time of Columbus 
from Patagonia to Hudson's Bay. The aboriginal Ameri- 
cans smoked it in pipes and cigars, chewed it, and. 
snuffed its dry powder or its infusion into the nostrils. 
The use last named has been adopted as an original dis- 
covery in Ujiji, Africa.^ The dried leaves and bark of 
many other plants were smoked by certain tribes of 
Northwestern America which did not possess tobacco.^ 

The favorite narcotic of the Malays and of various- 
other races inhabiting the islands or mainland near the 
Malay archipelago is the betel nut, the name given ta 
the quid prepared by sprinkling powdered lime on the 
pared nut of the areca palm, and wrapping it in the leaf 
of the betel pepper. Tennent, who studied its effects in 
Ceylon, thinks that '' no medical prescription could be 
more judiciously compounded than this combination of 
the antacid, the tonic and the carminative " to supply the 
nitrogen lacking in the ordinary food of many rice- 
eating Asiatics.^ Lime is an important part of the betel- 



78 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

nut quid, as it is also of the coca-leaf quid of Peru, of 
the gambier-leaf quid of Mandaheling,'^ of the tobacco 
quid of South Africa,^ of narcotic-leaf quids of the 
Thlinkeets,^ some Californians, and some South Ameri- 
cans,^ and of a narcotic snuff of the Otomacs.^ For 
chewing, tobacco is mixed with soda by the Wadai, and 
with ashes by the Somali. 

In Central Africa, the bitter and astringent kola-nut is 
chewed for its stimulant influences. Among the Fulahs 
it is offered to male guests, as is a cigar in Europe.^ In 
the basin of the Amazon, parica snuff, prepared from 
the ashes of three plants gives a brief but convulsive 
intoxication. ^° Among the Hottentots, delirium and un- 
consciousness are produced by chewing the kanna root. 
Besides their fungus, the Kamtschatkans use the leaves 
of a willow-like bush to produce intoxication ;" and the 
Olooches eat a kind of hemlock for the same purpose.^^ 

In South America, the stimulant effects of the cocoa 
leaf are obtained by chewing it or by drinking its hot 
decoction ; and in Abyssinia and Arabia the leaf of the 
kaat {Celastrus edulis) is used in the same methods for 
the same purpose.^^ The Chaymas chew a leaf which 
first exhilarates and then stupefies,^* and the Australians 
are similarly affected by eating pitcherie leaves.^^ 

Opium, the strongest of the narcotics, is eaten or 
smoked by relatively few savages and those mostly in 
the Malay archipelago. The opium poppy was culti- 
vated (probably for its seeds which are not narcotic) 
by the prehistoric lake-dwelling savages of Switzerland. 
Next to opium in strength, and to tobacco in extent of 
consumption, is hasheesh or bhang, which has spread 
from Hindostan over many islands near Asia, and over 
much of Africa. In a remote antiquity the Hindoos 



SEC. 36. HUNTING. 79 

chewed its leaves ; and the Scythians intoxicated them- 
selves with its fumes in their religious ceremonies. 
Another strong narcotic, a Kamtschatkan fungus, causes 
convulsions, and is used in a disgusting natural distilla- 
tion.^^ A similar distillation with delirious influences is 
familiar to the Cape Flattery Indians." The Angolese 
also have a narcotic fungus.^^ 

Sec. 36. Hunting. — Many savage tribes are skillful 
hunters. Dependent on the chase for much of their 
food, they have carefully observed the habits of wild 
animals, and have mastered the arts of taking them by 
nooses for the neck or foot, catching in pitfalls, luring by 
decoys and imitation calls, surrounding, driving into 
pens, nets, or narrow ravines, or over precipices, and 
killing by poison, by fire, by set spears, by falling lances, 
and by spring bows. All the traps and weapons made 
without metals are known to them. They attack and 
kill the lion, the tiger, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the 
hippopotamus, the buffalo, the grizzly bear, the white bear 
and the crocodile without fire-arms. The largest beasts 
are slain by setting fire to the dry brush or high grass in 
which they are sometimes found ; or by letting a heavy 
lance fall from a trap. For the white bear, a strong piece 
of whalebone with sharp ends is bent double, and tied 
together, wrapped with strips of meat or blubber, and 
exposed to freezing cold. The meat when frozen being 
strong enough to hold the whalebone in its bent shape, 
the string is cut, then the bait is set for the bear, and 
soon after he swallows it, the meat loosens and the whale- 
bone straightens, cuts through the stomach and kills the 
game. 

The elk, the deer, the moose, the African and Ameri- 
can buffalo, and many other quadrupeds, and the ostrich. 



8o A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

allow hunters disguised in the skins of their respective 
kinds to come near enough for fatal shots. Many tricks 
are used to attract game into places where it can b^ 
killed. When a buffalo calf is attacked by a wolf it 
utters a distressful bawl which calls to its aid all the herd 
within hearing. The Indians take advantage of this 
habit. One Redman dressed as a buffalo calf, attacked 
by another dressed as a wolf, bawls and draws a herd 
into an ambush or pen.^ The savage hunter, knowing 
the curiosity of the antelope, lies on his back in sight of 
his game and waves a stick with a colored rag at the 
end until one of the herd comes near enough to be shot.^ 
The Aleut lies among rocks, showing only his head 
covered with a seal-head mask and, by the call of the 
female seal, attracts the male within killing distance.^ 

Converging fences of brush or net several miles long* 
are built leading to narrow ravines, pits, precipices or 
inclosures, and a whole tribe with hundreds of men 
assemble on an appointed day to drive the game to the 
fatal place. The Shoshgne Indians have no material for 
high fences, and they undertake drives only when a soft, 
deep snow or deep mud, makes the antelope averse to 
high jumps. The game in the inclosure is chased until 
tired out and then killed with clubs.^ 

The Derr negro gets fresh meat by catching a poison- 
ous serpent, punching its tail, passing a cord through the 
hole and tying the serpent in a trail frequented by ante- 
lopes on their way to water.^ 

Sec. 37. Birds. — On the coast of Northwestern Amer- 
ica, a net is stretched across a narrow opening in a forest, 
on a route of ducks and geese, flying from one body of 
water to another. The fowl scared in the twilight, fly 
against the net, which is hidden from them by the smoke 



SEC. 38. FISHING, ETC. 8I 

from a smouldering fire. When they fall to the ground, 
they are immediately captured by the watchful savages.^ 
Similar nets are used in Polynesia.'^ In California, a net 
thrown across a stream is supported by high poles, to 
one of which it is fastened, while the other end is al- 
lowed to slide down till the net lies in the water. When 
game worthy of the trouble comes, a quick pull on the 
loose rope raises the net, and the bird striking it, falls 
into the water and is there caught by the hunter.^ 

The Tungoos sets a net in shallow water over fish roe, 
and the duck diving for his food, is caught in the mesh. 
At a place frequented by birds, the Eskimo builds a snow 
hut with a small opening through which he can thrust 
out his hand to catch and pull in his game.* The Aus- 
tralian lies as if dead with a fish in his hand, and thus 
catches the hungry bird.^ At Lake Winnipeg, it was 
observed that ducks approached a shore on which a dog 
ran backward and forward ; so dogs are trained to make 
such movements, while the master is hidden near enough 
to shoot his birds.® The Tongan ties a male bird near a 
light cage containing a hen, in a place where they will be 
seen and heard by wild birds of the same species, and 
where from a concealed position he can shoot the game 
attracted by the calls and movements of the captives.' 
The Lower Californian catches a pelican, ties it fast to 
the beach, and then issues from concealment when com- 
passionate pelicans bring pouch loads of fish to the strug- 
gling captive.® The Hawaiians and Veddahs catch small 
birds with birdlime.^ 

Sec. 38. Fishing, etc. — In spearing large fish and aquatic 

mammals, the savage observed that if the point of the 

weapon were firmly fastened to the shaft, the weapon would 

often be thrown out of the wound or broken ; and he de- 

6 



82 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

vised a loose point attached to the shaft by a cord in such 
a manner that so soon as the pull is felt, the point turns 
crosswise in the flesh/ The game is not only held more 
securely but the shaft becomes a buoy to exhaust the 
strength of the game and to indicate its place. Seal ar- 
rows are attached to the point by two strings, one run- 
ning to each end, so that the swimming animal has the 
heavy drag of the arrow crosswise in the water. Blad- 
ders full of air are attached as floats to the harpoons used 
in killing whales, seals and other aquatic animals. 

Fish can be seen at a depth of forty feet in clear water 
through holes cut in ice, and at that depth sturgeon are 
speared in Lake Superior. The game is attracted by the 
bait of imitation fish to the best place.'"^ Spears seventy 
feet long are used on Puget Sound to strike fish felt and 
not seen.^ The Haidahs have a lath fifteen feet long 
with barbed nails for striking the water in a shoal of 
oolakans, and catch a dozen at a blow.* 

The Andamanese shoot fish with loose-point arrows. 
Many tribes spear fish at night from a boat carrying a 
torch. In Georgia, after the fish approach the light, the 
river is beaten with a bush, and many of the frightened 
fish jump out of the water, to fall into the boat. The 
turtle of the Amazon is killed by an arrow which having 
been shot up into the air, falls vertically on the animal's 
back and thus can pierce his hard shell.^ In some of 
the Australian waters, a sucking fish, fond of attaching 
himself to the turtle, is tied to a long cord and allowed 
to swim off to a turtle, which is then drawn to the fisher- 
man's canoe and dispatched.^ Savages have dip nets 
and seines, some of the latter several hundred yards 
long. In casting his seine, the Kanembo of Lake Chad 
sits on a pole attached at each end to a gourd buoy. 



SEC. 38. FISHING, ETC. 83 

This allows him to sink to his waist in the water, leaving 
his arms out, so that he can use them freely.^ The seine 
knot of the Maoris is the same as that of the modern 
Europeans.^ In Georgia and portions of South America 
an Indian dives with a net, and comes to the surface 
with a fish in it.' In Australia and California, the native 
dives with a spear and brings up a fish on its point. ^"^ 
The Patagonian, Carib, Brazilian, Maori and Andaman- 
.ese dive and catch the finny game in their hands. 

Savage fish traps are of many kinds. One of the 
most curious is found in New Britain. Made of rattan, 
conical in shape, and a little heavier than water, it has 
J3it the sharp end a string and a wooden float. A stone 
a little heavier than the fioat is laid on the string, and 
T^hen a fish is caught its movement throws off the stone, 
and the float announces the capture." 

The hook is so simple in construction and so effective in 
catching fish, that it is known to most savage tribes, but 
not to the Tasmanians, the Lower Californians and the 
Chippeways.^^ The savage hook made of bone, shell, 
wood or stone is necessarily clumsier than the metallic 
liook. The barb is sometimes lacking and sometimes is 
attached to the shaft, not to the point. In several Pacific 
Islands the native hook is considered superior to any 
•other for catching fish.^^ In South America artificial 
flies, and in many Pacific Islands, imitation fish of lus- 
trous shell, are used for bait. 

Catching the shark with a noose is a favorite amuse- 
ment in many parts of Polynesia and Micronesia. When 
gorged with food, he likes to sleep or doze in a coral 
cave, where he may frequently be seen from a canoe. 
If out searching for something to eat, the savages throw 
packages of food, consisting of a mixture of fish and 



84 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

vegetables, sometimes with an addition of the narcotic 
ava, which stupefies brute as well as man. When gorged 
and perhaps partially intoxicated, the shark lies on the 
sand or goes into a cave ten or twenty feet below the 
surface. A diver slips a noose over the projecting tail 
of the game, and if the head instead of the tail be at the 
mouth of the cave, the diver taps him on the nose with a 
stick, whereupon the drowsy monster, to escape from 
the annoyance, turns round and presents his tail to his 
enemy.^"^ When the noose has been fixed, the diver 
rises, gets into a canoe, and then several canoes drag the 
game to the shore where it is killed. The gorging is 
sometimes done at night, and then the game is not 
dragged ashore until daylight, as the few intervening: 
hours tend to render the shark more helpless. If the 
shark be large, the death scene on the beach is an occa- 
sion of great enjoyment for all the people in the vicinity. 

The Gilbert Islanders catch the gorged shark with a 
tail noose, and also take the hungry shark with a head 
noose. In the latter case a baited hook attached to a. 
small line drags behind a boat, and when it has attracted, 
the attention of the game it is pulled forward until it 
passes through a noose of strong cord. The greedy 
shark follows, without observing the noose, which is 
suddenly tightened when his head has passed through^ 
His career then soon comes to an end.^" 

The aborigines of New Britain rub cups of cocoa-nut 
shell together in imitation of the sound of the bonita 
fish, and when the shark is attracted by the noise, the 
fishermen slip a noose over his head and drag him up 
within reach of their clubs. ^^ The same fishermen sneak 
up to the large turtle in the sea and catch him by 
throwing a lasso over his head and one fin." 



SEC. 40. VILLAGES. 85 

Captive turtles are kept in lagoons for meat and eggs 
hy the Cubans, Fijians, and Amazon valley tribes/^ 
Crocodile eggs are gathered, and allowed to hatch on 
the shore of a pond, in which the young reptiles stay 
until their masters, the Congoese negroes, see fit to eat 
them.^^ Fish taken with the hook are carried to ponds 
where they can be caught easily whenever needed,^° in 
Hawaii and Georgia. 

The female herring likes to deposit her roe in shallow 
^water on fir boughs, and on the coast of Northwestern 
America, the Indians put such boughs in the water, and 
from them get large quantities of the herring roe.'^^ In 
-every quarter of the globe fish are stupefied by throwing 
vegetable narcotics or poisons into the water and are then 
•easily caught.^^ 

Sec. 39. Bees. — For the purpose of finding the tree 
in which bees have their stores, the North American In- 
dian puts honey on a small flat stone with white gum on 
the edge, to which the bee goes to get a start for his 
ilight. Some of the gum sticks to him, distinguishes 
liim from other bees, and shows his course direct to the 
iiive. At the same time another Indian has done the 
•same thing several hundred yards away. The two 
courses show the situation of the tree. The Australian 
bee hunter stuns a bee by squirting water on it, catches 
it, touches it with gum and white down, and follows it 
thus burdened to its home.^ 

Sec. 40. Villages. — The non-tilling savages generally 
liave no permanent villages. Without a stock of food 
for the next week, or in some instances even for the next 
day, they move about frequently in search of something 
to eat. In portions of Australia, Tasmania, and Lower 
California, there is not more than one inhabitant for sixty 



S6 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

square miles and a tribe or group of thirty persons oc- 
cupy a district sixty miles long and thirty wide. Every 
year they make a circuit of their district, exhausting; 
birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, vermin, insects, roots, fruits^, 
seeds, and nuts in their round as they go, stopping a. 
week or a day at a place. In other countries the natives^ 
might go to the rivers in the spring for fish ; to the val- 
leys in the summer for grass seeds ; to the swamps in^ 
the early autumn for roots and aquatic birds ; and to the 
hills in the late autumn for nuts, nut-eating birds and 
quadrupeds. Tribes which live on large game are in^ 
many cases nomadic because the animals on which they 
depend migrate or have different haunts at different sea- 
sons. The Dakotas, Crows and Blackfeet have station- 
ary villages in the winter, but move half a dozen times irt 
the remainder of the year, so as to be near the buffalo^ 
At three hours' notice, their village can be on the road.*' 
The only Indians with permanent villages in the basin of 
the Missouri river are the Mandans, and they are also^ 
the only tribe in that basin with tillage and with fortifica- 
tions. 

Many of the littoral tribes of Australia and Lower 
California, depending mostly or wholly on shell-fish for 
food, move as often as once in three months. 

A village of non-tilling savages rarely has more thai^ 
fifty inhabitants ; one of tilling savages has usually at 
least three times as many, sometimes far more. Some 
of the Iroquois villages had each several thousand peo- 
ple. Hochelaga in Canada was laid out systematically 
with a well-constructed palisade wall.^ The Maoris and 
many Africans have carefully-built fortifications. The 
Pelew Islanders, when first found by white men, had 
paved streets.^ 



SEC. 41. HUTS, ETC. 8/ 

Sec. 41. Huts, etc. — The Tasmanians/ Andamanese,"'* 
Bushmen, Lower Cahfornians, Hill Veddahs, Fuegians, 
and some Piutes,^ Australians and Papuans never erect 
huts or tents, and have no better protection against wind 
and rain than mere shelters open on at least one side. 
The Bushman digs a hole at the side of a bush, or sets 
up a small mat, supported by sticks. The Australian 
makes a little shed with bark or bushes. The Fuegian 
shelter is a little better, but partly open. The Alforese 
of the interior of Ceram often spends his night in a tree- 
top, where he makes a little roof to keep him dry when 
it rains.* The low savacj-e in the interior of Sumatra, 
Borneo, and Luzon sleeps in the top or hollow trunk of 
a tree. 

A structure too rude to be called a house, and too 
good to be styled a shelter, is the dwelling of most sav- 
ages. Its covering is usually thatch or bark ; its floor is 
always the ground. There is a hole in the roof but no 
chimney ; and no window. The doorways in Central and 
Southern Africa are not more than two feet high, and to 
enter them the man must go down on his hands and 
knees. A Kaffir hut thatched with coarse grass on a 
frame of light poles, can be built by three persons in two 
hours ; and such a structure can be given to the flames 
at the end of three months for the sake of getting rid of 
its insect occupants. 

In extensive regions of Africa, every tribe has a pecul- 
iar hut pattern which may be recognized from a distance, 
so that a glance at a village informs the traveler whether 
he has crossed a tribal boundary. The shapes most 
common are those of hemispheres, half ovals, cones, and 
acorns. Each wife has a hut for herself and her children ; 
the husband has none for himself; except at night and at 



88 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

meals, he expects to find shelter in the assembly hut of 
the village.^ 

The Polynesian hut has a bamboo frame, a thatch of 
pandanus leaves, and open sides which can be closed 
with mats in chilly weather. In those North American 
regions where the birch tree is abundant, its bark fur- 
nishes a convenient covering for huts.^ The Pimas and 
some Australians make winter huts by covering their 
thatch or wattle with a thick coat of clay. The Mandan 
has a hut forty or even sixty feet in diameter, with a 
thick clay roof supported by heavy poles.' Some Sibe- 
rians have similar huts but smaller. The Central Califor- 
nian has a pit-hut fifteen or twenty feet in diameter for 
his winter home.^ Stanley found pit-huts in Africa f and 
the Britons,^® while tilling savages, and the barbarous 
ancient Teutons^^ had such dwellings, and the Lapps have 
them now. Some Shoshone Indians go into burrows in 
the winter.^^ 

The winter huts of the Eskimos are made of cakes 
of hard snow shaped with the knife, and laid up in 
the form of a low dome or section of a sphere. At 
the joints loose snow is pressed in and water poured 
on slowly in freezing weather until ice fills the space that 
was open. When the dome has received its shape, a piece 
is cut out to allow the insertion of a slab of clear ice cs a 
window. The entrance is through a long, low passage 
which excludes the intensely cold outer air. The tem- 
perature of the interior must never exceed thirty-two 
degrees ; so soon as it does the structure begins to melt. 
The only artificial heat used is that of a lamp. 

Tents made of skin or felt, supported on poles are used 
extensively by savages. In North America the tent 
skins are obtained from buffalo, elk, moose and deer ; in 



SEC. 41. HUTS, ETC. 89 

Patagonia from the horse ; in Eskimo regions from the 
seal, sea Hon and walrus ; in Siberia and Lapland from the 
reindeer. Felt made of hair is used for tents in Central 
Asia, the Sahara and some wooded districts of Africa. 
The covering is sometimes double or triple for protection 
against intense cold.^^ The Kirghiz have matting under 
their felt.'* 

Dwellings supported over the water on piles exist now 
in Malaysia, Melanesia, Central Africa, the Aino district 
of Japan and the Kuki district of Hindostan. They 
were found in Venezuela and Vancouver Island by early 
European navigators. As early as 5,000 b. c, there were 
two hundred pile villages, occupied by tilling savages, in 
the Swiss lakes ; and Herodotus mentions such villages 
as existing in his time in Southeastern Europe and in 
Western Asia. 

In the valley of the Niger, the floor of the hut should 
be three feet above the ground to give protection against 
snakes, ants and moisture. On the southern shore of 
the Caspian and in portions of Africa and Melanesia, a 
height of at least ten feet is necessary to keep the sleeper 
above the range of certain troublesome insects. In Kim- 
reland, the huts have floors twelve feet above the ground 
with space on them for goats, dogs and chickens. The 
Caribs have huts in trees forty feet up to escape the 
floods of the Orinoco ; and the Murray Islanders have 
their homes fifty feet above the earth. 

Houses each large enough to hold from five to twenty 
families, were common among most of the American 
tribes east of the Mississippi, and are found now among 
the Dyaks of Malaysia.'^ 

In certain tribes of Africa, North America, Polynesia 
and Malaysia, custom requires every village to have a 



90 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

large building for political, religious, social or hygienic 
purposes. Among the Mandans, this structure is exclu- 
sively ecclesiastical ; among the Pueblos, it is ecclesias- 
tical, social and hygienic, being used as a sweat or bath 
house at times ; among the Mundrucus, it is the place 
where the warriors usually sleep ; and among the Malays 
it is the repository for the scalp, jawbones, dried heads 
or other trophies of the village. In many tribes, it is 
used for entertaining friendly strangers. A hut built for 
the use of unmarried women and their lovers is one of 
the institutions of many African villages. 

Sec. 42. Fitrnitiire, etc. — In ordinary savage life, the 
household furniture is scanty. The Australian, Tasma- 
nian, Bushman and Californian sleep on the bare ground, 
with little or no covering in the coolest weather. Tribes 
a little higher in their culture have mats, bark, cloth 
and furs. The hammock, invented by South Americans 
as a protection against insects and moisture, is simple 
and serviceable, and it has the distinction of being the 
only piece of furniture adopted by civilization from sav- 
agism in modern times. The Polynesians, Malays and 
some Africans have a little wooden trestle for supporting 
the head or neck while sleeping. 

The savage woman, in the migratory tribes, has a 
basket or bag for carrying tools, ornaments and food, 
and a flat stone or a mortar for crushing seeds. In the 
higher grades of savage culture, she has several earthen 
pots for cooking. She keeps oil in a skin, gourd, 
jar or hollow sea weed. In the Haoussa country jars for 
fat and honey are made by covering a lump of moist 
clay with rawhide, and sewing the seams tightly ; ^ and 
in Kaffirland bottles for similar purposes are made by 
plastering a mixture of rawhide scrapings and blood 



SEC. 42. FURNITURE, ETC. 9 1 

with a little clay over a clay mould."'^ Drinking cups of 
gourds, cocoa-nut shells and marine shells are found in a 
few tribes. 

Spoons of buffalo horn or wood are used with soups 
and stews by many North American tribes. Boxes or 
baskets to protect grain from insects, mice and monkeys 
are made of a bitter bark by the Badema negroes ; and 
grain sacks are made by other tribes from the bark of a 
tree. A trunk six inches thick is cut to a length of 
fourteen feet, the bark is beaten for a distance of eleven 
feet from the larger end, so as to loosen, and stretch it 
sidewise ; it is then stripped back, and the eleven feet of 
bare pole cut off, leaving a sack about six feet long, and 
a foot and a half in diameter, on a pedestal three feet high.* 
A considerable part of the furniture of the Bushman 
consists of the mats behind which or under which he 
sleeps, and of the ostrich egg shells in which he keeps 
water. The non-tilling tribes generally have no cooking 
utensils. Some savages of South America knew the 
peculiar properties of caoutchouc, and made it into rings 
and bottles ;* and tool handles of gutta-percha were in 
•use among Malays before it was known to civilized men. 

Savages generally have no artificial light save that from 
a fire. The pine knot is however used for a torch in hunt- 
ing and fishing at night by the Redmen. The Malay 
torch for similar purposes is made with a lump of pitch 
or combustible gum in the end of a piece of bamboo. 
Oleaginous nuts on a wooden skewer serve as a substi- 
tute for a candle in Polynesia,^ and with a piece of dry 
bark through it as a wick, the oolakan or candlefish gives 
light at night to the Haidahs. A hollow stone, a wick 
of moss, and oil, obtained by chewing blubber, make up 
the Eskimo's lamp. 



92 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Sec. 43. Baskets and Mats. — Except in regions where 
the materials are lacking, no tribe is without baskets and 
mats. The aborigines of Central California are among 
the lowest of savages, and yet they make beautiful water- 
tight baskets in which they can boil porridge, throwing 
in red-hot stones for heat. The New Zealanders possess 
superior skill in making mats, for which an excellent 
material is furnished by their indigenaus flax, and for 
w^hich they have much need on account of the coolness 
»of their climate, their ignorance of weaving, their lack 
of a tree from which they could make bark cloth, and 
the scarcity of large skins. Their only quadruped larger 
than a rat is the dog, and they have few dogs. They 
make mats for clothing, bedding, hut walls, hut par- 
titions, sails and platters. Of their clothing mats some 
are waterproof, others are very light and a third kind 
thick and fur like. When the season for mat plaiting 
comes, the Maoris like to collect in parties, and while en- 
gaged in their work, listen to some bard who recites the 
legends and poems of their race. It is perhaps largely 
to these mat-plaiting parties, that they owe the wealth 
of their legendary lore. The tropical Polynesians hav- 
ing an abundance of bark suitable for cloth and no wild 
ilax and, needing no warm dress, made mats for bedding 
but not for clothing. In America and Africa, where 
large quadrupeds furnish skins for leather, there is rela- 
tively little need for mats and few are made. 

The Chippeway Indians, however, make handsome 
mats of reeds growing in the waters of Lake Superior. 
These reeds are cut at a certain season of the year, and 
are boiled for three-quarters of an hour to make them 
tough, then bleached, and dyed, and are plaited only in 
rainy weather or in the morning while the air is damp.^ 



• SEC. 44. DOGS. 95 

Sec. 44. Dogs. — Many species of mammals and birds 
are caught so easily ; they attach themselves to man so« 
readily ; and he takes such pleasure in their companion- 
ship, that he must have begun, in a very early condition 
of his culture, to make pets of them. Such pets are 
found in most savage tribes. By the aboriginal North- 
Americans the buffalo, the moose, the bear, the wolf,^ the 
deer, the eagle, the crane, the crow ;^ the squirrel and the 
raccoon were tamed occasionally ; by the negro tribes,, 
the lion, the panther, the wild cat, the jackal, the ante- 
lope, the ostrich and the monkey f by the South Ameri- 
cans, the tapir, the peccary, the agouti, the monkey, the 
opossum,* the parrot, the woodhen and the tortoise ; the 
seal, and the kite by some Australians f and the casso- 
wary in part of Melanesia.^ But in all these cases the 
object was to get a pet and nothing more. Such tame 
animals were kept without companions of their own spe- 
cies, and were not used to breed a stock of descendants,, 
inheriting the habits and tastes of domesticity. 

After the petting of individual brutes, the next step irt 
the domestication of animals was the breeding of the 
dog, which on account of his keen scent and hearing,, 
his vigilance, swiftness, intelligence, courage, and fidelity 
is valuable as a sentinel, as an aid in hunting and as a 
playmate for children. He requires less attention and 
labor in guarding and feeding than any other brute ; he 
is more serviceable in the chase, and he is more prompt 
and efficient in defending man against other animals. 
In many countries, he not only supplies himself with 
food but brings some to his master. He learns to catch 
fish in the water ; he scares fish into the net of the Fue- 
gian ; he serves as a beast of burden dragging the tent 
poles of the Missouri Indian, and as a beast of draught 



94 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

when hitched to the sled of the Eskimo, travehng fifty 
miles or more in a day. 

The dog is the most widespread of the domestic ani- 
mals ; he is found among the savages in every climate, 
in every continent, and on every large island. Where he 
is missing, man has no brute companion. The Anda- 
manese, Tasmanians,^ some Micronesians, Aleuts,^ Bush- 
men and Californian tribes have no tame dogs. Among 
the tribes which have the dog and no other domestic 
animal are the New Zealanders," the Niamniams, some 
Micronesians, and the savages generally of North and 
South America ; and all these occasionally eat dog meat. 

Sec. 45. Pigs, etc. — The pig was presumably the sec- 
ond animal in point of time to be domesticated by man, 
and was certainly the second in the breadth of area over 
which he was bred by savages. In most of the Pacific 
islands, he was the only tame quadruped besides the dog ; 
in, Asia and Africa he was common; in the Swiss pile 
villages of the stone age he was at home ; but he was 
not known to the New Zealanders before Cook's time.^ 
His stupidity, his sluggishness when well fed, and his 
ability to find food where many other herbivorous ani- 
mals would starve, make him valuable. He was un- 
known in America, and the peccary, a kindred animal, 
found wild in the basin of the Amazon, would not breed 
except in its wild condition. 

In many regions, the sheep, goat, cow and horse were 
not tamed until after the pig had been man's companion 
for centuries. The relative dates of the domestication 
of the chicken, the goose, the duck and the pigeon are 
unknown, but all were domesticated before men came 
into possession of metallic tools. The natives of Funa- 
fate, a Polynesian island, have tame frigate-birds which 



SEC. 46. TILLAGE. 95 

when the winds are favorable, visit other parts of the 
group, and by tying things to the necks of these birds, 
at such times, presents are sent to distant friends. 

Sec. 46. Tillage. — Tillage is the characteristic feature 
of higher savagism. Its introduction into culture was 
more important than that of stone-polishing, canoe-build- 
ing, weaving or pottery, and was earlier in time and 
more fruitful in great results than the domestication of 
the ruminant animals. It gives to man a steady supply 
of food, a habit of providing for the distant future, the 
idea of accumulation, fixed residence, dense population, 
and higher political and military organization. It teaches 
him to live by the toil not of the day but of the year. 
It prepares the savage for a life of peaceful labor and 
constant industry.^ 

The chief articles of cultivation are maize in North 
America and Peru ; cassava and the plantain in the hot 
districts of South America ; the banana in tropical 
Africa; the doora in South Africa; rice and the sago 
palm in Malaysia ; taro in tropical Polynesia, and the 
sweet potato in New Zealand. In the time of Columbus, 
the Indians east of the Mississippi planted maize, beans, 
peas, melons, pumpkins, gourds, sunflowers and tobacco ;^ 
and though they did not plant the black walnut, the 
butternut, the shellbark hickory, the persimmon, the 
black mulberry and the wild plum, these trees were 
saved in fields where other trees were killed. Some 
tropical South Americans had cultivated the papunha, a 
fruit resembling an &^^ plum, so long before the time of 
Columbus that when white men first saw it, it was 
occasionally seedless.^ Long cultivation is also implied 
by the lack of seeds in the Brazilian breadfruit* and in 
the Brazilian manioc.^ 



96 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

The Polynesians plant bananas, breadfruit, cocoa-nut, 
taro, sweet potato, ginger ava, and the paper mulberry. 
The Maoris make fences, dig up the soil with pointed 
sticks hardened in fire, and put sand on heavy soils. 
The taro in tropical Polynesia requires careful and liberal 
flooding. The Wanyikas cultivate a cucumber for its 
seeds from which they make a salad oil. As the North 
Americans have their fields of tobacco, so have the 
Africans theirs for Indian hemp, the Malagasies theirs for 
betel pepper,® and the South Americans theirs for cocoa.^ 
Wheat, barley, flax, apples, pears and poppies, all brought 
from Asia, were cultivated by the Swiss lake dwellers in 
the stone age. 

After it had been proved by experience that edible 
fruits, seeds and tubers could be obtained by cultivation, 
the spread of tillage was obstructed by nomadic hab- 
its, the difficulty of protecting fields against marauding 
animals, the disgrace attached to the man engaged in 
agricultural labor, the custom of treating all large stocks 
of food as common property, the dislike of steady toil, 
the general disposition to strive for nothing save imme- 
diate results. Although many tribes till the ground, the 
field work is done by women, serfs or slaves. It would 
dishonor the noble or freeman. The Creek warrior may 
gather the maize when it is ripe, but he must not plant it 
or hoe it. The Kaffir warrior drives the cows to and 
from the pasture, puts them in the pen at nightfall, lets 
them out in the morning, and milks them, but he must 
not touch the digging stick. 

Many of the obstacles to the spread of tillage were 
removed by a strong political organization, in which 
chiefs defended property rights ; by a strong ecclesiasti- 
cal organization which sanctified slavery ; and by a 



SEC. 46. TILLAGE. 9/ 

strong military organization which repelled alien enemies, 
and kept a large stock of slaves in subjection. Protected 
by such institutions, slavery repaid them by giving them 
greater strength. It accustomed the masters to study 
and the slaves to practice steady toil ; taught many dis- 
tinct occupations; gave density of population ; and made 
men familiar with the accumulation of large stores of pro- 
vision and other property. It was especially prosper- 
ous in temperate climes where energy is not oppressed 
by enervating heat, and where the struggle of agricul- 
ture against the luxuriance of wild vegetation, is less 
difficult than in torrid regions. The temperate zone also 
yields most abundantly the nitrogenous cereals, contain- 
ing a large amount of food for the muscles, in the smallest 
space, and in forms that can be preserved for a long time 
without change, and that can be transported over long 
distances with relatively little expense. As nutriment for 
men of high physical and intellectual energy, the typical 
cereals of the temperate zone — wheat, barley, rye, oats 
and maize — are far superior to the banana, plantain, 
breadfruit, cocoa-nut, taro, yam, cassava, sago and rice 
of the tropics, to the date of the subtropical lands and to 
the blubber of the polar regions. With the aid of tillage, 
culture began to move away from the equator, and its 
march in that direction has been continous ever since. 

Among the tilling tribes of the Redmen it was the 
custom that there should be one field near each vil- 
lage, and in that field every family should have a patch 
as large as it could cultivate. The record of DeSoto's 
expedition says he traveled for two Spanish leagues or 
more than five English miles in one field, the magnitude 
of which implied a dense population and general confi- 
dence in the security of property. Irrigation was not 
7 



98 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

used in America by savages ; it was applied in Polynesia, 
especially in the fields of taro, which without it would 
not thrive. The Maoris fertilized their fields and carried 
sand to mix with clay soils. 

The cultivation of maize and tobacco did not arise 
simultaneously in all parts of America, but each must 
have started in a small district from which it was spread 
by savage enterprise over extensive regions ; as in mod- 
ern times those plants and cassava have been carried by 
savages over much of Africa. The cocoa-nut, banana 
and various palms owe their introduction in many dis- 
tricts to the same influence. 

Most hill tribes of Hindostan move their villages once 
in three years, and after tilling a field for a season or two, 
desert it for another. The abandoned tract is soon cov- 
ered with bushes, which, after a good rest, are burned 
to enrich the soil and prepare it for another crop. Many 
negro tribes have a similar rotation of fields.^ 

Sec, 47, Iinpleme7tts , etc.— The simplest and proba- 
bly the earliest implement, used in loosening the soil 
and preparing it for the reception of seeds, is the digging 
stick, a sharp pole, six feet long. Four or five of these 
are driven aslant into the ground round a circle a foot 
and a half in diameter, the points directed towards a 
common center, and the enclosed circle is pried up by 
concert of action. Such digging sticks are used in 
Africa. A great improvement upon this is made by 
using a flat pole or wooden spade with a cross piece 
near the point for the foot, such as was observed by Cook 
in the Tongan group and also in New Zealand.^ Hoes 
are made in Africa, Polynesia and North America with 
blades of stone, shell, wood and bone ; and the . shoulder 
blade of the deer was in common use for a hoe blade in 



SEC. 48. MILK-YIELDERS. 99 

Georgia. Stone adzes were also much used as substi- 
tutes for hoes. 

Sec. 48. Milk-yielders . — The pile-dweUing Swiss of 
the stone culturestep had the cow and sheep, and 
therefore the domestication of those ruminants belongs 
perhaps to savagism. The sheep was not indigenous 
in Europe and must have come from Asia', as perhaps 
did the cow. Whether, in other regions, the goat, ass, 
horse and camel were domesticated as early as the 
cow and sheep, is uncertain. The cow of the savage is a 
very different animal from that of the highly civilized 
man. To the Damara she yields three pints of milk a 
day ; ^ to the European thirteen times as much. 

The tame milk-yielding animal increased the stock of 
food and of property, contributed to maintain a denser 
population, provided a medium of exchange, and sup- 
plied nourishment to infants, which had previously de- 
pended exclusively on the mother's breast for three or 
four years.^ When half of the previous period of lacta- 
tion was cut off for the woman, and the drain for the 
other half much diminished, her social value rose. Her 
life was rendered easier. She became more attractive to 
her husband. She could rear more children. One of 
the chief excuses for polygamy was destroyed, and the 
domestic circle was strengthened. 

The only use for butter among many African tribes is 
to anoint their bodies, and the ancient Teutons and 
Slavonians applied it to a similar purpose.^ In Kaffra- 
ria and other regions of South Africa, the dairy work 
and herding are done by the men.* The cow, which was 
a common domestic animal of Egypt in 4,000 b. c, 
is superior to all the other ruminants as a milk- 
yielder, is unsurpassed for meat and for leather, and is 



100 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

equaled by few animals in docility of disposition. The 
dromedary of Arabia, the camel of Bactria, the horse oi 
Turkestan or Persia — called by the early Assyrians ** the-- 
pack animal of the East " ^ — ^^and the goat of Western Asiar- 
were presumably each first domesticated in their indige- 
nous regions. 

Our sheep has lost, more than any other domestic ani-^ 
mal, its fitness for a wild life. Its dependence on man for 
food and protection, and the excellence of its meat and 
wool, secure favor for it among savages as well as amon^' 
civilized nations. In low culture, its wool is not shorm 
but is plucked out as it was by the Romans in Pliny's"- 
time.^ The goat is better adapted than the sheep ta" 
bush-covered and steep mountains, and in portions of 
Africa uninhabitable for the cow or horse on account of 
the tzetse fly, and too warm for the sheep, the goat is the* 
only milk-yielder. 

The cow, horse, camel and buffalo are used for burden?. 
but not for draught among savages, but their chief value- 
to them is for milk and meat. A small herd of either o£' 
these animals is sufficient to maintain a savage family,., 
and its possession stimulates its owner to adopt habits of 
economizing and providing for the distant future. He 
studies the habits of his beasts, learns to treat their dis- 
eases, erects shelter and stores food for them, becomes- 
skillful in training them, trades with them, makes them sl 
source of accumulating wealth and rises more and more- 
above the rude modes of life prevalent among the lowest 
savages. 

Sec. 49. Boats. — The simplest form of the incipient 
boat is a floating log on which a man sits astride pro- 
pelling himself with legs and arms. On such supports^ 
Australians visited European ships in the last century.- 



SEC. 49. BOATS. 1 01 

The next step in the art of navigation was to fasten two 
-or more logs side by side, or to tie a number of reeds or 
xanes together in a raft. A great advance was made 
when some man hollowed out a log, to reduce its weight, 
increase its buoyancy, and make a dry place for himself, 
iiis food, his weapons, and his clothing. Such boats 
with square ends, and semicircular bottoms as if made 
irom a tree trunk split through in the middle, have been 
found in European mounds. One such boat had two 
.handles at each end, so that it could be carried conven- 
iently on land.^ The next improvement was to 
:sharpen the end so that the boat would move easily 
through the water ; and another was to change the shape 
^of a cross section from a semicircle to the transverse 
.section of a long oval. 

Many modern tribes never learned to make anything 
ibetter than a raft for navigation. Among them were the 
'Californians on San Francisco Bay and its tributaries, the 
Tasmanians and many Australians, though all of them 
liad easy access to large trees well suited for canoes.^ 

The boats of savages may be classified as dugouts, 
-plank canoes, bark canoes, and skin boats. The dugouts 
-are made from the trunk of a tree with the aid of fire, by 
'±he Andamanese, the Redmen east of the Rocky moun- 
tains south of latitude forty-two degrees, and many others. 
Pitch is put on the wood to be burned out and wet clay 
»on that to be protected.^ Stone axes are used in cutting 
away the charred material, and several men work for 
-months in making a small canoe.'' In recent years, 
'dugout canoes sixty feet long and six feet wide have been 
made by the Haidahs,^ who after doing all the other work, 
use hot water to make the wood pliable, so that they can 
-give the desirable width to the upper part of the sides. 



I02 A HISTORY OF MANKIND, 

Bark canoes are used on the St. Lawrence and its trib- 
utary waters, the upper Mississippi, the upper Missouri, 
the Yukon, and many other streams of Northern Amer- 
ica ; and also in Guiana,^ Ugogo,^ and parts of Australia.^ 
A tough and flexible bark, such as that of the birch — 
perhaps the best of all barks for canoe purposes — is 
peeled from the tree in a single piece, sewed together at 
the ends, covered with pitch at the seams, and stiffened 
with a light wooden frame.^ A birchbark boat carries 
ten times its own weight, will last for three or four 
years and can be made by one man in a week. The 
Maoris have canoes of wood and also of mats,^" and mat 
boats are made in California.^^ 

For the savage, without metallic tools, it was far more 
difficult to make a plank boat than a dugout. He could 
not saw out a board ; he had no accurate scale of meas- 
urement ; and he had no nails. Nevertheless he accom- 
plished the task. He made planks by burning and chip- 
ping with a stone adze ; he fitted the pieces together by 
his eye; he sewed them together with twine or rattan; 
and he covered the seams with pitch. Thus he made 
boats thirty yards long and two wide, with room for 
more than a hundred men. The largest plank boats of 
savages in stone culture were those of the Fijians and 
Polynesians. The Micronesians, Malays and Fuegians 
make their boats in the same manner, but the Fuegian 
boats are small. 

Boats of skin stretched on wooden frames are made 
by the Missouri River Indians, by the Abipones of 
South America, and by the Eskimos, The boat used by 
the Eskimo for seal hunting is admirably adapted to 
its purpose, and is one of the wonders of marine archi- 
tecture,^"'^ Although, so small that it cannot carry more 



SEC. 49. BOATS. IC3 

than one person, and that its upper surface is only six 
inches above the water, yet in it the Eskimo can venture 
far out to sea in rough weather. It has a close deck, 
with which the dress of the boatman is so connected, 
that the water can wash over him without getting into 
the boat. For propulsion, the chief dependence is the 
paddle. The oar and scull are known to few savages. 
A sail of matting or of skin is used by the Pacific Island- 
ers, Malays, Caribs, Floridians, and some African tribes. 

The outrigger, a substitute for ballast, peculiar to the 
aborigines of the Pacific and Indian oceans, is a log or 
bamboo stem resting in the water, parallel with the 
canoe, six, eight or even twelve feet from it, and at- 
tached to it by crosspieces above the level of the water. 
The outrigger is on the windward side, and in case of 
change in the wind or in the course of the boat, the sail 
and perhaps the mast is shifted. When the breeze be- 
comes so strong that the outrigger is lifted nearly out 
of water, men go out on it or weights are placed on it 
to preserve the equilibrium. Alone among the Polyne- 
sians, the Maoris had no outriggers.^^ The Samoans 
considered it impossible for sail boats to live in a rough 
sea without them, and they wondered at the prediction of 
one of their priests in the last century, that a large boat, 
without an outrigger, would arrive with people different 
from any they had ever seen.^^ A pole projecting out 
to windward serves instead of an outrigger in small 
canoes.^'' The Solomon Islanders have a double out- 
rigger, that is, one on each side of the canoe. ' 

The Tahitians, New Caledonians, Malays,^® and some 
Congoes^^ occasionally attach two canoes together, side 
by side, but from six to twelve feet apart, either with two 
cross-pieces or with an intervening deck. 



104 ^ HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Rude as are the Polynesian boats, many of them make 
voyages of more than a thousand miles, sailing from 
Tahiti to Hawaii and back with confidence based on ex- 
perience, and trusting to the stars for guidance. The 
Micronesians and Malays make similar voyages. To 
such ventures much of the original settlement of the 
Pacific isles is due. The Indians of Florida sail in their 
boats to the Bahamas. 

The sled, the only vehicle made by savages for land 
transportation, is used by them only on snow or ice. 
Constructed of wood or bone, and weighing perhaps not 
more than twenty pounds, it can carry a load of two 
hundred. It is drawn by reindeer or dogs, and the only 
harness is a single rope or trace for each animal ; for the 
reindeer a cord is attached to his head. The cart wheel 
was unknown to the Americans and Polynesians when 
these people were discovered by the modern Europeans. 

Sec. 50. Pottery. — Pottery was unknown to the Poly- 
nesians who had no potter's clay, to the Eskimos who 
had no fuel for kilns, and to the non-tilling savages 
generally. In shaping their clubs, spears, paddles and 
poles, as in making canoes, mud was used to protect por- 
tions of the wood from burning. Such applications sug- 
gested that wet clay should be plastered over a basket 
or a gourd that was to be set on a fire to heat water. 
In 1503, Capt. Gonneville found South Americans boiling 
water in wooden pots so protected.^ Gourds and bas- 
kets for use on the fire were covered with clay in Aus- 
tralia.^ Pots were moulded over gourds in Georgia,^ 
and others bearing the marks of the baskets on which 
they were moulded have been found in Illinois, Georgia, 
and Brazil.'' Indeed this method of shaping pots was 
not abandoned by the Cherokees when white men first 



SEC. 51. THREAD, CLOTH, ETC. IO5 

became familiar with them. Some of the pottery of the 
tiUing Swiss lake dwellers was marked with the thumb- 
nail in imitation of basketwork, suggesting that pots had 
previously been made in or over baskets. A considerable 
advance was made; it was found that the clay could be 
shaped and burned as well without a wooden frame. 

Many different materials were tried. Some clay cracked 
in drying; some broke very easily after being burned. 
Different kinds of clay were mixed together, or silicious 
or calcareous matter was added to the paste.^ The 
Kaffirs make pots of the hills of the white ants.^ The 
Redmen generally burn their pottery in the open air; 
among the tribes which understood the advantages of 
the oven were the Arowaks of South America.' 

Out of burned clay the North American Indians made 
pipes, idols, cups, water bottles, jars, and cooking pots, 
including some holding ten gallons or more for boiling 
down maple sap or salt water. Large pots to be used 
over a fire had holes in the sides for a suspending pole 
which was protected against the flames by wet clay.^ 
The Fijians made jugs with hollow handles for spouts. 

Soapstone or steatite was fashioned into cooking pots 
in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New 
York, Michigan, New England, in Catalina Island, and in 
the land of the Eskimos. The Eskimos also make pots 
of flat stones on which they build up a rim of other 
stones fastened together with a cement compounded 
with grease and lampblack. The Aleuts make pots with 
rims of clay on a bottom of stone." 

Sec 5 I . Thread, Cloth, etc. — The art of spinning is 
known to all savages. The Australians practice it in its 
rudest form ; they twist the fibers by rolling them on 
the knee under the hand.^ The Redmen and the more 



I06 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

advanced tribes use a spindle with a weight or whorl 
attached to save labor. The sinews of large mammals 
are split up into fine threads, but they are not well 
suited for use in garments or weapons often exposed to 
the water, and for these, thread of vegetable fibre is pre- 
ferred. 

Sewed clothing is unknown to savages generally, but 
is found among the American Indians east of the Rocky 
Mountains, who wear sewed leggins, moccasins, and 
cloaks. It exists also among the Eskimos who use the 
needle in preparing all their garments. Some of the Es- 
kimo thread made of whole sinew is as delicate in fibre 
as fine sewing silk. The prehistoric European cave 
dwellers lived in a subfrigid climate and had bone nee- 
dles suggestive of sewed clothing. 

In Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and portions of 
Central Africa and South America, cloth made of bark 
is used for clothing and bedding. In Polynesia it is 
made from paper mulberry saplings about two inches in 
diameter. Each sapling supplies a piece of bark about 
six inches wide and six feet long. After the hard outer 
coat has been scraped off, the bark is beaten till it 
spreads out to a width of two feet ; several pieces are 
glued together at the sides ; the joints are beaten till 
they are invisible ; and the manufacture ends with print- 
ing in colors and varnishing. Such cloth, though easily 
torn and soon spoiled when exposed to the rain, is pro- 
duced with little labor and is well suited to the wants of 
a tropical climate. 

In its origin, weaving was much later than spinning. 
It was unknown to the non-tilling savages generally, 
and also to the Polynesians, Melanesians, Fuegians, Kaf- 
firs and many other Africans, and though known to 



SEC. 52. LEATHER. IO7 

many North American tribes, was little practiced among 
them. The simplest weaving known was done, by the 
Nootka Indians with unspun fibres of fir bark. The 
same process was known to the various other Redmen^ 
and also to the tilling savages of the Swiss pile villages. 
The Haidah Indians beat the inner bark of the cedar 
tree, spin it and weave it. They, and many other tribes^ 
pluck or shear their dogs every spring for the wooL 
Cloth is made of buffalo hair in the basin of the Missis- 
sippi. 

The cloth of the savages is usually made by hand 
weaving or stick weaving — that is, the tram is passed 
under and over alternate warp threads by the fingers or 
by a stick. The Chippeways had an upright frame with, 
horizontal rollers about five feet long and four feet 
apart. A single thread wrapped over these rollers 
formed the warp, and after the tram had been woven in,, 
a cut through the warp made a piece of cloth five feet 
wide and eight feet long. The device of raising all the 
alternate threads at one movement and lowering them at 
another, so that the tram could be passed rapidly from 
side to side, was known to very few savages, and the 
shuttle to none. 

In portions of America, a mat-like cloth is made by^ 
cutting the skins of rabbits or wild geese into strips,^ 
and then plaiting these strips together. In Tahiti and 
Hawaii" beautiful feather mantles, to be worn by the high 
chiefs, are woven. A thin flexible mat serves as a basis 
and, on the outside, is hidden by the feathers. 

Sec. 52. Leather. — The process of tanning with astrin- 
gent substances is certainly unknown to most and 
perhaps to all savages save those tribes which have 
learned it from nations in a higher culturestep ; but 



I08 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

many tribes are familiar with other modes of dressing 
hides so as to make them soft, pHable and warm for 
purposes of clothing. Stretching, scraping, rubbing, 
chewing, smoking and soaking with various liquid or 
semi-liquid substances, are among the methods em- 
ployed. The skins are rubbed with brains of buffalo or 
deer by the North American Indians ;^ with chewed 
liver by the Patagonians f with clotted milk and flax- 
seed by the Abyssinians f and with willow bark and a 
fetid liquid by the Chookchees.'' The seal skins of the 
Eskimos are rendered pliable by soaking in household 
lye followed by chewing. In the Soudan, hides are 
made waterproof with milk." The Monbuttoo Africans 
are distinguished by their ignorance of all methods of 
dressing hides into leather. Out of salmon skin, the 
Chookchees make a leather for woman's clothing.^ 

Sec. 53. Traffic. — The aboriginal Californians gener- 
ally, the Australians, the Tasmanians, the Andamanese, 
the Bushmen, the Fuegians, and other non-tilling sav- 
ages have no medium of exchange, no professional trader, 
no habit of depending on traffic for acquiring any neces- 
sary of life, no custom of assembling for commercial 
purposes, no accumulation of articles intended for barter 
or sale, and no such division of labor that any man 
could consider himself secure from the toil of hunting 
up food for himself The first separate occupation seems 
to have been that of the priest ; next, perhaps that of 
the knife maker, and then of the chief 

Unless brought into contact with people in a higher 
culturestep, there is very little traffic among non-tilling 
savages. The mounds of Central California contain few 
articles brought from distant regions. But the tribes in 
New York had obsidian knives from Mexico ; those in 



SEC. 54. METALS. IO9 

Ohio had redstone pipes from Minnesota, and copper 
from Michigan ; those in Tennessee had marine shells and 
shark's teeth from the Atlantic; and those in many dis- 
tricts east of the Mississippi had greenstone axe-heads 
and chert arrowheads brought from distant regions. 

As mediums of exchange, we find cowries in Western 
Africa^ and New Britain j"^ shell beads or wampum east 
of the Mississippi and in Northern California,^ salt in 
portions of Africa, various ornaments of shell or crys- 
tal in other parts of the world, and domestic animals 
wherever they exist. Coin is not a product of savagism. 

Fairs, for purposes of traffic, are common in many 
tribes of the Pacific, of Africa, and of Malaysia, and 
are held at regular intervals. Such gatherings in the 
Hawaiian and Fijian groups attract visitors from distant 
islands. In some portions of Polynesia, the privilege 
of trading with people from a distance belongs exclu- 
sively to the nobles ; in others to the chiefs. 

Sec. 54. Metals. — The Australians, Tasma;nians, Pa- 
cific Islanders, Californians and many other savages, when 
first observed by civilized travelers, had no metal. 
Some American tribes east of the Mississippi had pieces 
of native copper which they had pounded into knives, 
chisels, arrowheads, spear heads, awls, daggers, and orna- 
ments. They know nothing of the arts of smelting or 
casting metals. 

Gold has been used for ornament by several tribes 
which could not melt it, but could shape it by hammering. 
Meteoric iron, though known to savages, was unman- 
ageable for them. From barbarous or civilized visitors, 
many African tribes have learned the arts of smelting 
and forging iron, but its possession has not sufificed to 
raise them out of the general customs of savagism. 



no A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Sec. 55. Industrial Achievements. — Having thus con- 
sidered the industry of savages in its details, let us look 
back for a comprehensive idea of their contributions to 
the useful arts. They made themselves familiar with the 
liabits of animals and the qualities of plants and miner- 
als. They tried every kind of stone to see whether it 
would make good knives, and every kind of wood to 
iind whether it would do for kindling sticks, bows, spears 
and canoes ; and every kind of fibre to make twine. 
They discovered the palatable and nutritious character 
of all the products now used as food. By cooking, soak- 
ing, or grating and pressing, they converted many vege- 
tables, naturally poisonous, into wholesome food. They 
invented all the main processes of cooking. They grilled, 
baked, boiled, and stewed. They preserved food by dry- 
ing, smoking, salting, freezing, covering with melted fat, 
and by burying in the ground. They prepared hard 
seeds for food by grinding in mortars, and by soaking. 
We owe the idea but not the modern pattern of mill, 
oven and cooking pot to our savage ancestors. 

They observed the stimulant or sedative quality in 
every narcotic plant now in use. They are possibly 
and in most cases certainly entitled to the credit or dis- 
credit of first making use of tobacco, betel, opium, 
hasheesh, coca, kola-nut, ava, Kamtschatkan fungus, 
mate, cocoa, coffee, and tea. One of the latest of these 
narcotics to come into use was coffee, which began to 
attract attention in the Middle Ages among the Arabians, 
who heard of it from the Abyssinans, and they were 
induced to try it by a traveler from Central or Western 
Africa, who while there had tasted a decoction made 
from a similar bean but of different species. The Swiss 
pile dwellers in the stone age drank warm decoctions, 



SEC. 55. INDUSTRIAL ACHIEVEMENTS. Ill 

and it is possible, though not proved, that the Paraguay- 
ans did so too before the time of Columbus. Savages 
extracted, by chewing from raw leaves and seeds, a little 
of those stimulating alkaloids which we obtain, in greater 
quantity and more palatable form, by steeping in hot 
water. 

They learned how to make and to polish edge tools 
of stone, and in every region they used the stone that 
combined in the highest degree, the qualities of desira- 
ble fracture with toughness. They perceived the value 
of missile weapons which should strike at a distance, and 
they devised unsurpassed patterns for the arrow, the 
spear, the throw-club, and the sling-stone. They pre- 
served the aim of the spear and the arrow by giving 
them a whirling motion. They attached a loose point to 
the spear for fish and aquatic mammals, so that the shaft 
should not be broken, and that it should offer the great- 
est possible resistance to the escape of the wounded ani- 
mal. They gave greater impetus to the spear by using 
a sling or throw-stick, and to the axe by fastening it on 
a handle, thus gaining an advantage similar to that from 
a prolongation of the arm. They poisoned the head of 
the arrow and spear, and thus got game which would 
have escaped with an unpoisoned wound. 

They were skillful hunters and fishermen. They 
invented pit-falls, nooses, box-traps, fences, decoys and 
disguises. They imitated the calls of the game animals 
with wonderful fidelity. They stalked quadrupeds by 
day and dazzled them with fire by night. They attacked 
and killed the lion, tiger, grizzly bear, hippopotamus, 
rhinoceros and elephant. They took fish with hooks, 
seines, hand nets, traps, nooses, harpoons, and poison. 
They bated their hooks with worms, meat, and genuine 



112 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and imitation flies and fish. They practiced deception on 
brutes as well as on their fellow-men. Civilization has 
added much to the implements of the hunter but nothing' 
to his skill. 

From cold and heat, from rain and wind, they sought 
shelter in caves and hollow trees and under projecting 
ledges of rock. Then they dug holes in cliffs and steep 
banks of hard earth or soft stone ; made shelters of 
branches or mats ; and afterward advanced to the con- 
struction of huts. They covered a frame of light poles 
with thatch, bark, clay-smeared wattle, or of heavy poles 
plastered with a thick layer of clay. They built dome- 
shaped huts of clay or hardened snow. They drove 
piles in shallow water as a support for villages relatively 
secure against the attacks of enemies. 

They acquired high skill in making mats. They tried 
the bark of many plants, and different layers of the bark 
so that they might reject all save that which would yield 
the largest and toughest fibre. They used matting for 
clothing, bedding, sacks, shelter and sails. They made 
it thick like fur, and thin like light muslin. They also 
produced somewhat similar fabrics from the inner bark 
of certain trees by beating it until it became soft, flexible 
and suitable for clothing. 

The art of making baskets arose with that of making 
mats. Both were carried to high excellence by rude 
savages. A little later was the discovery that a long 
and strong cord could be made by twisting together 
many short pieces of animal or vegetable fibres. The 
vegetable fibres, having been previously known in mat- 
ting, were the first used in spinning, and were found to 
be the best for nets and cords to be used in the water. 
It was for fishing that there was the most demand for 



SEC. 55. INDUSTRIAL ACHIEVEMENTS. II 3 

twine among savages. After twine had been made, it 
was woven into cloth, by a process similar to that in 
the plaiting of mats. 

As it may be said that cloth was developed out of the 
mat, so pottery grew out of the basket. A basket cov- 
ered with clay set on the fire to heat water, turned into 
a piece of burned pottery which proved to be more val- 
uable than the original basket, and other pots were made 
on baskets until it was discovered that the pot could be 
made better without the help of the basket. 

They learned to dress skins so that they should be pli- 
able, soft, warm, and valuable for clothing and bedding 
and also for tent covering. Whether they discovered 
the tanning qualities of the bark of the oak and of vari- 
ous other trees is doubtful ; perhaps they found that 
they could dress skins with less labor by other proc- 
esses. Certain it is that, for many purposes, they pre- 
fer the leather prepared by their methods to that from 
the civilized tanyards. 

The lowest phase of navigation is that of the Austra- 
lian who sits, astride, on a log, and propels it by paddling 
with hands and feet. A better conveyance is the raft of 
reeds on which the aboriginal Californian crosses San 
Francisco Bay or some of its tributary waters. A step 
higher is the log canoe with square ends, and a great im- 
provement is made on that conveyance by sharpening 
the ends. In about the same stage of development with 
this form, are the canoes made of bark, mats or skins, 
stiffened with a wooden frame. Much higher are the 
large canoes made of planks sewed together, provided 
with outriggers, masts and sails, and capable of carrying 
fifty or a hundred persons on long voyages. 

Savages tilled the soil. They loosened it with a dig- 
8 



114 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

ging stick, a hoe, or a rudimentary spade. They culti- 
vated cereals, legumes, tubers, and fruit trees. They 
introduced valuable plants into regions far from their 
indigenous habitats. They observed the superior fitness 
of certain soils for certain plants and by putting manure, 
sand, ashes, or muck on their fields, they got better crops. 
They irrigated and flooded their land. They allowed 
their fields to rest, and thus in a certain sense rotated 
their crops. 

They domesticated all the animals of much value to 
man. They began with pets of many kinds ; then do- 
mesticated the dog, then the pig, and finally the sheep, 
goat, cow, horse, camel, buffalo, reindeer, ass, duck, 
goose, and chicken. They taught the dog and reindeer 
to draw sleds, the horse, ass, cow, buffalo and camel to 
carry burdens, and the sheep, " goat, cow, camel, rein- 
deer and buffalo to stand still to be milked. 

They differentiated occupations. They had classes of 
men who devoted their time exclusively to boat build- 
ing, knife making, fishing, and tilling the soil. They 
had a traffic of barter, and used domestic animals a's a 
medium of exchange. They had periodical fairs and 
made long voyages to attend them. 

When we take into account the circumstances in 
which they lived, the frequent famines, the bitter wars, 
and the other dangers to which they were frequently 
exposed ; when we keep in mind their lack of metal, of 
letters and of scientific knowledge; when we think of all 
these drawbacks, it seems wonderful that they should 
have achieved so much. If all the inhabitants of an 
English village containing a thousand adult men were, in 
our time, set down without tools or books in an island 
such as England was before men occupied it, and had no 



SEC. 56. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. II 5 

communication with other men, many years would elapse 
before they or their descendants would live as securely 
and comfortably as many savages did. 

Sec. 56. Industi^ial Development. — Archaeology is a 
witness that culture has steadily advanced. Wherever 
the remains of the habitations, implements and food of 
man have been found in the strata deposited in a remote 
age, whether in the drift, gravel or caves, or in village 
mounds, there the earlier the date of deposit, the ruder 
and simpler the life. In no continent have the products 
of the modern inhabitants generally been ruder than 
those of its occupants in the remote past. The aborig- 
inal Australians of the last century had no tillage or 
polished stone, and there is no reason to believe that 
either was known to the Australians of preceding ages. 
Bronze and iron were not known to the Redmen east of 
the Mississippi in the last century nor at any earlier time. 
When Columbus discovered the New World, the Aztecs 
and Quichuans had no iron, nor was it known to their 
ancestors or predecessors. The Gauls and Britons who 
submitted to Caesar were as far advanced in culture as 
any people who had occupied the same regions before 
them. No remains of a printing press, steam engine, 
railroad or magnetic telegraph has been found in the 
excavations of ancient cities or mounds in any part of 
the globe. ^ 

If the tunnels, the embankments, the deep cuts, the 
roads cut into the sides of cliffs, the mine excavations, 
the canals, the sea-walls, and the walls of brick, and 
stone, and mortar, made within the last eighty years, — if 
all these should be abandoned to-morrow to the corrod- 
ing and eroding and other destructive forces of nature for 
two thousand years, after the lapse of so long a period, 



Il6 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

they would still be plainly visible, and then would far 
surpass in magnitude and significance everything that 
we now know as prehistoric remains 

Etymology is another witness against retrogression. 
Her evidence is complex and weighty. She has word- 
lists in hundreds of tongues all indicating the advance of 
man from a simple to a complex life, from concrete to 
abstract ideas, from low to high industry. The English 
word " pecuniary " takes us back to the time when not 
metallic coin but the cow was the chief medium of com-- 
mercial exchange. The English word ** estimate " is the 
survival of a period when a thing was worth so much in. 
*' aes " or bronze. The Basque word for knife is a rem- 
nant of a period when the common edge tools were of 
stone. Philosophy is full of such traces of lower culture^ 
and contains no evidence of retrogression. If we had no* 
other proof, a comparison of the French, Spanish, Italian^ 
Portuguese and Roumanian tongues, all daughters of the 
Latin, would suffice to convince us that the ancient 
Romans had no printing press, no steam engine, no* 
railroad, no steamboat, no sawmill, no rolling mill, no> 
chemical analysis. As the modern romance tongues 
came from the Latin, so the Sanscrit, Persian, Greek, 
Latin, Celtic, Slavonic, and Teutonic tongues come from 
an early Aryan language, which was lacking, as we know 
from a comparison of the derivative tongues, in many of 
the ideas and comforts of Greek civilization. Even our 
alphabet contains survivals of a period when men not 
having yet devised letters, wrote with hieroglyphics.. 
Our A was once the picture of an ox ; and if we extend 
its cross-piece on each side and turn it upside down we 
have the rudely drawn head of the ox with ears and 
horns. 



SEC. 56". INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 11/ 

The oldest records, including the papyrus rolls and 
monumental inscriptions of Egypt, the clay tablets of 
Assyria and Babylonia, the Vedas, the Avesta and the 
Pentateuch abound with evidence, that in the times 
■when they were written, culture was much ruder than at 
present in all the main departments of life. There was 
no coined money ; traffic was unimportant ; bronze was 
the most common metal ; crime was punished by retal- 
iation ; adult males captured in battle were slain ; women 
and children captives were enslaved; and in religion, 
sacrifices, idolatry and polytheism were prominent. 

A few cases of retrogression in human society are 
"known, but they are so few, so relatively small, so un- 
important in the general history of culture, and so plainly 
traceable to causes of limited influence, that they may be 
considered as illustrations of the general principle of 
advancement. The Bakalahari tribe in South Africa lost 
their cattle in war and are now poorer and lower in cul- 
ture than were their ancestors, several generations since.^ 
Some Tungoos communities of Northeastern Asia hav- 
ing lost their herds of reindeer, and some Kalmucks hav- 
ing lost their's of cows, have been compelled to live with 
less comfort, by fishing.^ Some Snake Indians west of the 
Rocky Mountains have been driven by stronger tribes 
from hunting grounds which their forefathers occupied, 
and so have been compelled to depend on smaller game 
for subsistence.* In Mesopotamia, Morocco, Algiers, 
Tunis, Syria, Central America, Cambodia and Java the 
buildings of several later centuries are decidedly inferior, 
in magnitude, durability and architectural skill, to those 
erected there in the remote past. The overthrow of the 
Roman empire was accompanied by a great decline in 
literature and ornamental art over a large part of Europe. 



Il8 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

But in all these cases, the decay in one place, or in some 
departments of life, is insufficient to prove a general 
retrogression for even a brief period. Even in the Dark 
Ages, culture continued her general onward march. 

Sec. 57. Natural Progress. — By a large accumulation 
of evidence from many different sources, history shows 
that savage industry was originated and developed 
through its whole course by man's innate capacity ; and 
that this development was governed by natural and uni- 
form laws, which were the same as those which have 
been observed in barbarous and civilized life 

In preceding sections we considered the different 
phases in the arts of tillage, spinning, pottery, navigatioa 
and the domestication of animals. We found that these 
phases have every appearance of being the successive 
steps in the slow and gradual development of skill, under 
influences similar to those which we observe at work irt 
the industrial progress of our own time. Many of the 
products of human labor are intelligible with and not 
without the theory of natural growth. 

Let us now consider the origin of one of the most 
ingenious and important products of civilized industry^ 
the steam engine. It drives other machines ; unlike 
them generally, it is power-producing rather than a 
labor-saving invention. If there be any possession of 
man that by the mightiness of its power, by the magni- 
tude of its size, the complexity of its construction, the 
abstruseness (to the savage mind) of the principles on 
which it is constructed, the precision with which its parts 
are adapted to one another, and the vastness of its influ- 
ence on life ; — if there be any industrial possession of 
man that would deserve to be considered a supernatural 
production, it would assuredly be a steam engine of 1889. 



SEC. 57. NATURAL PROGRESS. II9 

And such the AustraHan or the Arab has often 
beheved it to be ; but not so the civihzed man, who 
knows the history of the invention and of its inventors, 
of the experiments, disappointments, trials, toils and 
numerous improvements, many small and some great, 
made by those men who have contributed to produce 
this great machine. The record of the development of 
this marvel of industrial genius is within reach of all ; it 
shows an unbroken series of natural steps, without any 
commencement, or subsequent interruption, by a super- 
natural jump. The steam engine is natural not only in 
its origin but also in its method of working. It demands 
food or fuel, and fresh air, and these must be combined 
In active combustion, with a development of heat which 
is converted into mechanical power in strict proportion 
to the amount of fuel consumed and heat evolved, in 
accordance with physical laws . 

Other great products of human genius, inferior to the 
steam engine in some respects, but nevertheless marvel- 
ous, are the puddling furnace, the rolling mill, the Besse- 
mer converter, the steam spinning jenny, the steam 
loom, the steamboat, the railway, and the electric tele- 
graph, each of which was the result of long studies and 
numerous experiments. If we be convinced that all these 
are the natural products of the human mind, consistency 
will require us to believe that the simpler, smaller, and 
less efficient implements of our prehistoric ancestors had 
a like natural origin. Besides, it does not agree with 
our ideas of divine dignity that the gift of the gods 
should be superseded by the superior device of man. 
If Neptune had given the pattern and rig of the ancient 
galley to the Greeks, he would have kept up his credit 
by building the modern schooner, ship and steamship. 



I20 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

If Ceres had made the first hoe, she would also have 
made the first iron plough. If she had made the flail, she 
would also have invented the threshing" machine. The 
gods do not give such gifts to us, nor did they give 
inferior ones to our ancestors. 

By his wants and his surroundings, man is compelled 
to work ; and by his intellectual constitution he is stim- 
ulated and enabled to devise methods of making his 
labor more convenient and efficient. There is no end to 
his improvements, and every one in its turn is prized, 
copied, and made the base of new improvement. The 
ingenuity of one becomes the treasure of all. An art of 
value to the multitude, and once widely known among 
them, has never been lost. No large branch of industry 
became perfect or reached its present stage of develop- 
ment among savages. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SOCIAL LIFE. 

Sec. 58. Promiscuous Group. — Among savages gen- 
erally, life is made insecure by frequent warfare ; and as 
a rule, the lower the culture, the greater the insecurity. 
It was unsafe for the primitive man to dwell at a distance 
from friends. Regard for his own safety, compelled him 
to make his home with others in a group, bound together 
by the obligation of mutual defense. All the non-tilling 
and most of the tilling tribes known to civilized observa- 
tion consist of small defensive groups, which we may 
presume are the successors of groups organized, for the 
purpose of protecting their members, in the beginning of 
human society. 

There is reason to believe that for thousands of years 
and over a large part of the earth, in the primitive 
defensive groups, all the men were common husbands 
and all the women common wives. There was no idea 
of the relationship of uncle, nephew, father-in-law, son-in- 
law or brother-in-law, or of their feminine equivalents, 
and of course, without the ideas, there were no words to 
express them. The child gave the name of father to 
every man in the group or village ; and in return, the 
man called every boy, son. The maternal relation was 

(121) 



122 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

of course as well known then as at any later time, but it 
did not find so distinct a recognition in common speech. 
Every woman was called mother by all the children, and 
every child was called son or daughter by all the moth- 
ers. There was no word to describe a collateral relation- 
ship or to convey the idea of exclusive sexual possession. 
The only relationships recognized in common speech 
were fraternal and parental, including brother, sister, 
parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, child, grand- 
child and great-grandchild. In all these cases the blood 
was traced exclusively through the mother. Paternity 
was considered too uncertain to be taken into account in 
the pedigree. There was no word for husband, save man ; 
none for wife, save woman.^ 

In the course of time, the promiscuous or consanguine 
group was overthrown by influences ascertainable only 
by inference. Bachofen believes that the main cause was 
the sentiment of the women against intercourse with 
brothers ; ^ but this explanation is improbable when we 
remember that no such feeling prevented the marriage 
of full brother and sister in the royal families of the 
Quichuans, and ancient Egyptians and Persians, in bar- 
barous culture; nor of the half brother and sister, chil- 
dren of the same father, in many countries, including 
some in civilized culture. 

Peschel attributes the reform to the conviction that 
long interbreeding has a pernicious effect on the physi- 
cal and mental constitution of humanity, and even pre- 
vents continuous fertilization ; ^ but this explanation, like 
the preceding one, is not in harmony with customs 
that have been long maintained over extensive areas. 
According to Lubbock, the promiscuous group was 
overthrown by the men who wanted wives as exclusive 



SEC. 58. PROMISCUOUS GROUP. 1 23 

possessions and as trophies of their miUtary prowess ; 
and having got these by capturing women from other 
groups, they gradually adopted the opinion that it was 
discreditable to take wives among the women of their 
own villages.'' This theory is however unsatisfactory on 
many points, and especially in these that after the over- 
throw of the consanguine group, the husband did not 
take his wife into his village but he went into hers, and 
that he went for his wife not to a hostile tribe but to a 
friendly clan. 

The promiscuous group was a scene of continuous 
quarreling between brothers and sisters in the presence 
of fathers and mothers who were called upon and could 
not refuse to interfere. There was only one remedy for 
this evil and that was that the man should marry, in 
another village ; and as the idea of sexual exclusiveness 
had not obtained a strong foothold, and was perhaps 
without any influence on the majority of the community, 
the only safe plan for the man was to leave his native 
village and make his home in another where all the 
women belonged to a different stock. 

The first change from the consanguine group was a 
prohibition of matrimonial relationship between all per- 
sons descended from a common mother in the female line. 
This was the basis of the feminine clan, to be considered 
hereafter. The second change was that the head chief 
required his wife or wives to be true to him, as among 
some Polynesians and troglodytes,^ while the other 
women were subject to little restriction. The third 
reform was that nobody but a relative or guest of the 
husband was entitled to the wife's favor, as in many 
Arab tribes.^ Many other customs relating to the wed- 
ding day," and to the collection of a dowry, found in Egypt, 



124 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Libya, Quichuan Peru and Hindostan/ must be consid- 
ered survivals of the consanguine group. In Babylon, 
every woman before marriage was required to make a 
sacrifice in the grove of the temple of Astarte.^ Of the 
Britons, Caesar wrote : ^' By tens and twelves, husbands 
possessed their wives in common, and especially brothers 
with brothers, and parents with children."^** 
I Sec. 59. Relationship Nomenclature. — In terms of kin- 
ship, the most primitive language known, is that of 
the Polynesian island of Rotuma. It recognizes no col- 
lateral relation, such as uncle, nephew or cousin, and no 
relation by affinity save brother-in-law and sister-in-law. 
To his mother's brother, the Rotuman gives the title of 
father ; to his father's sister, that of mother ; to her son 
'that of brother ; to his sister's son, that of son. To us, 
who have frequent and important use for the distinctive 
titles of uncle, aunt, nephew, niece and cousin, it seems 
strange that people could have done without words for 
those relations. In many other respects the language of 
Rotuma is not meager, and its extreme poverty in rela- 
tionship of affinity and its lack of all terms of collateral 
kin, is inexplicable upon any theory save that of the 
promiscuous group. 

One grade higher than the tongue of Rotuma is that 
of Hawaii, which has no terms for collateral relation, but 
in addition to those of brother-in-law and sister-in-law 
had those of father-in-law and son-in-law, with their fem- 
inine equivalents. One grade higher is that of the 
Mohawks, who besides having brother-in-law, father-in- 
law and son-in-law, and their feminine equivalents, have 
the word uncle to designate the mother's brother. This 
term is not given to the father's brother ; for he is still 
called a father, as in the consanguine group, and his rela- 



SEC. 59. RELATIONSHIP NOMENCLATURE. 12$ 

tion to the woman is very similar to that in the earher 
social condition. After Rotuman, Hawaiian and Mo- 
hawk nomenclature, we come to a fourth stage of devel- 
opment in the Micmacs, a tribe whose remnant is now 
found in Eastern Canada. To the distinctive terms in 
the lower forms of speech, they have added uncle for 
father's brother as well as for the mother's, and nephew 
and niece for some, but not for all, children of broth- 
ers and sisters. Thus to the man his brother's sons, and 
to the woman, her sister's sons are her only nephews ; 
while to the man, his sister's sons, and to the woman her 
brother's sons are not nephews but sons. The Bur- 
mese go a step further and use the word nephew in the 
same sense as we do. The sixth step is that of the 
Wyandots who use the word cousin, unknown to 
Rotuma, Hawaii, Mohawk, Micmac, and Burma, but 
apply it not as we do^ but only among males to the 
mother's brother's son and to the father's sister's son, 
while the father's brother's son and the mother's sister's 
son continue to be brothers, as in the earlier phases of 
speech. The Karens in the seventh step above the pro- 
miscuous group give the title of cousins to the children 
of all those whom we call uncles and aunts. 

The Kingsmill Islanders have the same nomenclature 
as the Hawaiians ; the Oneidas the same as the Mohawks ; 
the Japanese the same as the Burmese ; the Senecas the 
same as the Wyandots ; and the Eskimos the same as the 
Karens. All these tribes give the title of grandfather to 
the grandfather's brother ; of grandmother to the grand- 
father's sister ; of grandson to the brother's son's son, 
and to the sister's son's son. Since in the consanguine 
group, our first cousin was their brother, and retained 
that title among the Hawaiians and Mohawks ; so in 



126 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

those tribes, the son of the first cousin was called a son, 
and the cousin's grandson was called a grandson. 

According to the development of speech in the mat- 
ter of relationship nomenclature, a man may have a 
dozen fathers and no uncle; a dozen mothers and no 
aunt ; a dozen grandfathers and no grand uncle ; several 
uncles who have sisters, wives and children, but no aunt 
or cousin ; and several brothers and sisters with children, 
but no nephew or niece. 

In certain tribes the same title is given to a cousin's 
son and to a grandson ; and in Latin as in some romance 
languages of modern Europe, the same word may mean 
either nephew or grandson, as it did in England three 
centuries ago. 

The appendix contains several tables presenting, in 
tabular form, some of the information already given here 
about relationship nomenclature, with additional evi- 
dences in favor of the theory that, at one time, the promis- 
cuous group was widely prevalent, if not universal in 
human society. 

By comparing as to certain tribes, the titles of uncles 
and aunts with those of their children, grandchildren, 
and great-grandchildren, Lubbock found that out of two 
hundred and eleven points in Morgan's tables of con- 
sanguinity, two hundred and seven contain evidence of 
progress from the promiscuous group to the modern 
family ; as against four on the other side. The evidences 
are as fifty to one. Comparing other relationships, 
such as uncle with father, aunt with mother, granduncle 
with grandfather, grandaunt with grandmother, nephew 
and cousin with second cousin, and grandnephew with 
grandchild, the evidences are a thousand to one. 

Sec. 6o. Femmine Clan. — From the promiscuous 



SEC. 60. FEMININE CLAN. 12/ 

group, the matrimonial system advanced to the next 
higher step, the feminine clan, which traces descent 
exclusively through the mother, forbids the man to have 
any intimacy with a woman who has inherited the same 
blood in the female line, and requires the husband to 
transfer his residence to the village, and his allegiance to 
the clan, of his wife. It retains all its daughters and 
drives away all its sons. The women are its only per- 
manent element. They own the territory, the dwellings, 
the furniture and the food ; and the privilege of divorce 
belongs to them and to them exclusively. The husband 
may abscond but he cannot drive the woman from the 
common home. A clan is a division of a tribe ; and in a 
North American tribe there are at least three clans. 
While all the women of the clan are born in it, all their 
husbands must have come from other clans, perhaps six 
or eight others. The tribe is never exogamous ; it never 
compels its young men to seek wives in other tribes. 
The feminine clan prevails among the Iroquois, the 
Creeks and their related tribes, the Delawares, the Mun- 
cies, the Mohicans, most other tribes east of the Missis- 
sippi, the Mandans, the Otoes, the Minitarees,^ and among 
most of the Australians. In every quarter of the globe 
it has left traces of its former prevalence. 

Wherever the feminine clan exists, it is the main feat- 
ure of the social and political organization. It claims 
the highest allegiance, gives the most efficient protection, 
and is the basis of the only common worship. In the 
feminine clan, the family or group of a man with his wife 
or wives and children has not attained prominence and 
influence. So far as there is an inheritance, the clan is 
the chief heir of its dead member, taking precedence of 
brother, nephew, or son. Generally in the feminine clan 



128 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

the man is supposed to have only one wife, but the rela- 
tions are very loose for both man and woman. No 
marriages or sexual intercourse between children of the 
clan is possible without incest; no robbery or murder 
without sacrilege. No homicide by an outsider can be 
left unavenged without disgrace. A man owes to his 
fellow clansmen, and to them alone, fraternal affection, 
cordiality, fidelity, and mutual helpfulness. All others 
are beyond the protection of any strong obligations of 
morality. There being no pedigree in the male line, a 
man can marry his half-sister on the father's side with- 
out offense to public opinion ; and the maternal uncle 
has more authority over his nephew than has the boy's 
father whose claim to the paternity cannot be proved 
and, according to the general custom of the clan, may be 
very doubtful. 

Sec. 6i. Totem. — The feminine clan comprises the 
female descendants, in the direct female line, from a com- 
mon ancestress, and also all those male descendants, in 
the same line, who have not yet married into another 
clan. The ancestress called the totem, is divine, and the 
worship of her, though not prominent, is one of* the 
bonds of clan union. In most cases she was a brute ; in 
some a plant, a mineral object, or a meterological phe- 
nomenon. The savages did not undertake to explain 
how a bear, a plum or a flash of lightning could be the 
mother of men. They accepted the assertion as a matter 
of tradition, to be accepted without question. The mem- 
bers of the clan venerate not only their mythical ances- 
tress but all natural objects or phenomena pf her class, and 
treat all of them as totems of the clan. Thus not only the 
mythical mother black bear of the black bear clan is 
sacred to all its members, but so are all black bears. No 



SEC. 01. TOTEM. 129 

animal of that species must be killed or hurt or eaten, 
nor approached without a show of reverence. The name 
of the totem is the name of every member of the clan. 
Thus in the black bear clan, every boy is called a black 
bear, and he has besides a personal name, but no name 
inherited from his father. He draws the figure of his 
totem on his club, canoe, deerskin, shield or tent, or 
wears it tattooed on his breast. In the totem clans of 
America and Australia, one of the first questions to be 
asked when strangers meet is '' What is your totem? " ; 
and from their replies, they know their relationship. If 
of the same totem, they are brothers. 

At Mt. Gambler and presumably in other parts of 
Australia, many animals, plants, heavenly bodies and 
meteorological phenomena, not recognized as totems, 
are yet recognized by the aborigines as belonging to 
certain totems and sharing their sacredness in a minor 
degree. Thus the dog, the blackwood tree, fire, and 
frost belong to the pelican totem ; the duck, the wallaby, 
the owl and crayfish to the tea tree totem ; the bustard, 
the quail, and the dolvich to the murna (a plant) totem. 

The average number of clans in the tribes east of the 
Mississippi is perhaps eight. The Chippeways have 
twenty -three ; the Creeks twenty-two ; the Pottawatomies 
fifteen ; the Senecas, Cayugas, Onondagas, Tuscaroras, 
and Choctas each, eight, the Oneidas and Mohawks 
each three. Among the totems of the Creeks are wolf, 
alligator, cougar, bear, deer, fox, skunk, raccoon, wild- 
cat, toad, hickory-nut and maize.^ The Chippeways have 
five kinds of fish, three kinds of tortoise, eight kinds of 
bird, eight kinds of quadruped and one of snake. The 
Pawnees west of the Mississippi, have buffalo, beaver, 
deer, eagle, and owl.^ 

9 



130 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

In many tribes, besides the clan there is a grand-clan 
or association of clans, reminding us of the '' curia " or 
grand-clan of the Romans and the "phratria" or grand- 
clan of the Greeks. It seems to have been formed out 
of a clan which grew so large that convenience demanded 
a subdivision. The Mohicans have wolf, turtle, and tur- 
key, grand-clans ; the first comprising the wolf, bear, dog 
and opossum clans ; the second comprising the little tur- 
tle, mud turtle, great turtle and yellow eel ; and the last 
the turkey, crane and grouse clans. The functions of 
the grand-clan are mainly ceremonial, including the pres- 
ervation of peace among its subordinate clans. 

Sec. 62. Australian Exogamy. — A large part of Aus- 
tralia is occupied by feminine clans with sacred totems, 
supreme allegiance and the obligation of mutual defense, 
as in North America ; and besides with peculiar subdi- 
visions, limiting the right of marriage. These subdivis- 
ions extend through many tribes, some of them separated 
by a thousand miles of distance, as well as by ignorance of 
each other's speech. By gestures however they can ascer- 
tain their relationship in the clan and subdivision of the 
clan, the first points of inquiry among them when they 
meet as strangers. These Australian classes are the high- 
est development of the exogamic principle, but under their 
influence there is less approach towards monogamous 
life than in North America.^ 

Some tribes have two and some four of these classes. 
A tribe at Mt. Gambler has two clans each of which has 
two classes, the Kumite and the Kroki. In the former 
the man is Kumite and the woman Kumitegor ; in the 
latter the man is Kroki and the woman Krokigor. The 
final " gor " is a feminine termination. The Kumite 
must mate with a Krokigor of the other clan and all her 



SEC. 62. AUSTRALIAN EXOGAMY. I3I 

children are Krokis and Krokigors. Her son Kroki 
must mate with a Kumitegor of the other clan. 

The Kamilaroi tribe has six clans, of which three 
(Iguana, Kangaroo and Opossum) have the Muri 
(female Matha) and Kubi (female Kubitha) classes ; and 
the other three (Emu, Blacksnake and Bandicoot) have 
the Kumbu (female Butha) and the Ipai (female Ipatha) 
classes. There are thus six clans and four classes in the 
tribe. The name of the feminine class is derived from 
that of the masculine class, with or without other 
change, by adding the feminine termination '' tha." 

In the widely separated regions of Queensland, West 
Australia, Central Australia and Herbert River Valley, 
various tribes have the same four classes ; but perhaps, 
in the whole continent, a greater number of tribes have 
only two classes. In the four-class tribes, the man is 
limited in the choice of a wife to a single class. Thus 
Muri must mate with Butha ; Kubi wih Ipatha ; Kumbu 
with Matha; and Ipai with Kubitha. The child never 
belongs to the class of either father or mother, but 
always to her clan. The sons and daughters of Kubitha 
are Muris and Mathas ; those of Matha are Kubis and 
Kubithas ; those of Butha are Ipais and Ipathas ; those 
of Ipatha are Kumbus and Buthas. Ipatha is the 
mother of Butha and Butha of Ipatha. A similar alter- 
nation appears in the classes of father and son. The 
system is so arranged that the blood of the tribe shall 
flow continuously and evenly through all the classes. 
Thus, Kumbu's children are Kubis ; his grandchildren, 
through his daughter, are Muris ; and his great-grand- 
children, through his daughter's son, are Ipais. In four 
generations, each of the four classes is represented. 

The class has no distinctive totem nor duties of a 



132 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

political or religious character ; it is exclusively a limita- 
tion, with correlative privilege, in the sexual relations.^ 

Sec. 63. Fe7nini7ie Clan Survivals. — Many countries 
which have not had the feminine clan in historical times,, 
yet have traces of it in their customs or traditions. The 
totem, one of its peculiar features, is found in many^ 
African^ and Dyak tribes;' and it reminds us of the 
brute deities of the districts of ancient Egypt, where the 
sister's son inherited the office of district prefect, in 
accordance with a rule inherited from very early times.^ 
Inheritance in the female line prevailed in the chieftain- 
ship of the ancient Picts,* as it does now in that of the 
Batta Malays,^ Tongans,^ Ashantees, Mandingoes and 
Loangoes/ and in the transmission of property among^ 
the Berbers, the Malagasies, the Bantars of Hindostan,, 
the Wamoima, some Nubians, the Angolese,^ the Island 
Malays,^ the Marquesans, the Tahitians and the Fijians, 
Both rank and property descend to the sister's som 
among the Bangalas and many Micronesian tribes. Rela- 
tionship is traced mainly in the feminine line among the 
Kasias, Kocchs, Nairs, Malabars and Padang Malays, 
The Banyars have elective chiefs, the choice usually fall- 
ing on the sister's son of the predecessor,^*' and a similar 
rule prevailed in electing the emperor of the Aztecs.^^ 
The Kasia husband moves to the house of the wife; and 
among the Scandinavian Lapps in the last century, the 
newly-married man had to live for a year with his father- 
in-law. The modern Chinaman who has migrated to a 
remote country sends his savings to his mother, rather 
than to his wife. In ancient Spain, the Iberian daughters 
inherited all the property of the family and provided for 
the sons. 

In Fiji, the eldest son of the eldest sister can go to the 



SEC. 63. FEMININE CLAN SURVIVALS. 1 33 

village of the chief who is his maternal uncle and there 
take anything save the wives, and house of the chief 
He is the heir of the whole village and, when he pays a 
visit, must be received with great festivity/^ Among the 
Kaffirs and many tribes of Eastern Africa, the maternal 
uncle has more authority over the child than the father ; 
and among the Bondas^^ and Kimbondas^* he has exclu- 
sive power to sell his maternal nephew or niece. On the 
other hand, the Bondas hold the nephew responsible for 
the crimes and debts of his maternal uncle.^^ Various 
traces of feminine descent are found among the Senegal 
Moors and the Guajuro Indians of South America.^^ 
In the Egyptian and Etruscan tombs, the name of the 
dead man's mother, not of his father, is given ;^^ and in 
the Hebrew book of Chronicles, the name of the king's 
mother is associated with his, as if she were the second 
person in authority. The king's mother is prominent in 
Burma, Ashantee, Magira, Bagirmi and Madai. 

Aristotle remarked that the most warlike tribes were 
under the rule of women, and among them he included, 
presumably, the Celts, the Scythians and the Thracians, 
who had survivals of the feminine clan, and had women 
noted for courage. In the time of Tacitus, the Teutonic 
Sithones had women chiefs ; and among the Teutons 
generally, the best hostage, for the good conduct of a 
ruler, was not his son, but the son of his sister. The 
Lycians of Asia Minor derived their pedigree and took 
their name from the mother exclusively. Among the 
Southern Slavonians of this century, the chief obligation 
of avenging a murder rests not on the father, but on the 
brother or maternal uncle.^^ Among the Arabs and the 
Gonds, the young man has a prior right to marry the 
daughter of his paternal uncle; whereas it would be 



134 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

improper for him to solicit the hand of a cousin on his 
mother's side. The greater sacredness of the maternal 
relationship is a survival of exclusive feminine descent. 
So also is the rule requiring the monarch in ancient 
Egypt and Persia, in modern Quichuan Peru, Madagas- 
car and various African countries, to marry his sister, so 
that his son should inherit through both parents. 

Many Arab tribes are named after brutes such as lion^ 
wolf, dog, gazelle, calf, dove or eagle, or as tradition says, 
after founders who bore the names of those animals. 
The dove tribe does not eat the dove ; the other tribes 
attach no sacredness to the animals after which they are 
named. As we find many other traces of the feminine 
clan in Arabia, we may presume that all the tribes had 
their respective totems in remote times. Speaking of 
some Arabs at the beginning of the Christian era, Strabo 
said : " All have one wife in common. . . Adultery 
is punished with death, but it can be committed only 
with a woman of another tribe." There is here no 
definition of the tribe within which intercourse was per- 
missible ; and the language is not inconsistent with the 
supposition that all the husbands were, by birth, mem- 
bers of a clan different from that of the wives. 

The word for tribe in the language of the Arabs, and 
that for fellow-clansman in the tongues of the Malays 
and Alfuras of Celebes are survivals of a condition in 
which descent was traced in the female line only. Some 
Arab tribes are named after women. Thus the Banu- 
Chindif, the Banu-Ocda, and Banu-Mozaina are the 
descendants of the women Chindif, Ocda and Mozaina, 
The Bedouins of Southern Arabia accept son-in-laws, who 
are to settle in the wife's village or group, a custom that 
has survived from the time of the feminine clan. 



SEC 63. FEMININE CLAN SURVIVALS. 13$ 

In the opinion of the Arabs the character of the man 
bears more resemblance to that of his chahl or maternal 
uncle, than to that of his father ; and for his good or bad 
deeds, the people bless or curse his chahl, even if the 
latter died twenty years before. A proverb says, '* When 
a mule was asked ' Who is your father ? ' he answered, 
* The horse is my chahl.' " When Mohammed wanted to 
honor Wakkaz he took his hand and said to his friends 
" Behold my chahl ! " An Arab chief describing another 
chief to Mohammed said, '' He has little capacity and 
less generosity; his children are stupid and his chahl is 
bad." An Arab chief of the Taglib tribe offered his wife 
to the Calif Al-Mansur, who excused himself and ex- 
plained to his servant that his only reason for rejecting 
the match was the passage in a poem by Jarir who 
wrote, '* Seek no chahl among the Taglib. The negroes 
are nobler chahls." The importance thus attributed to 
the chahl, as Wilken remarks, can be well explained as a 
survival of exclusive maternal relationship. 

Among the Hebrews, who are akin to the Arabs, we 
find traces of feminine descent. Abraham married his 
half-sister, daughter of his father, and so did Moses. 
Amnon violated his half-sister, also a child of David, and 
could have married her, but neglecting to do so, was slain. 
Such marriages were permitted in the time of Ezekiel.^® 
The purchase money for Rebecca went not to her father 
but to her brother and her mother,^^ and the duty of blood 
revenge belonged to the relatives on the mother's side."^^ 
Robertson Smith has made the remark that " the use of a 
participle [in the Hebrew tongue] to mean a physical 
father must, beyond all doubt, have been developed in a 
condition of life in which physical fatherhood was not the 
basis of any important social relation."" 



136 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Marriages between brothers and sisters of the half 
blood by different mothers were reputable among the 
Athenians in the time of Solon, and were tolerated as 
late as Pericles. Before Cecrops the Athenians took 
their names from their mothers as did also the Lycians 
in 450 B. c, and the early Cretans and Etruscans, and 
the Locrians of Italy. In Madagascar now the Hovas 
permit the marriage of brother and sister by different 
mothers. 

The feminine clan did not permit the father to sell the 
daughter. She belonged more to her mother and 
maternal uncle than to her father ; and if there was any 
article of purchase in the matrimonial bargain, it was 
rather the husband than the wife. He, not she, changed 
residence. His title in her was not permanent enough 
nor exclusive enough to induce him to pay for her. 

Sec. 64. Masculine Clan. — The feminine clan was 
probably universal or nearly universal at one time among 
the non-tilling tribes ; but it became less and less suited 
to the wants of society. The warrior sometimes found 
himself compelled to fight with the clan of his wife and 
daughters against that of his mother and sisters. His 
companions in the field had not the same blood as he, 
nor the same early training, nor the same traditions, nor 
the same sympathies, nor the same life-long interests. 
They had not been bred in the clan ; they had no secure 
place in it. They might be divorced and driven to seek 
homes elsewhere. 

All the improvements in the useful arts in government, 
in the military art, and in religion tended to weaken the 
feminine clan. The advance of cultivation, the establish- 
ment of slavery, nobility, powerful chieftainship, and he- 
reditary priesthood, and the introduction of new tactics 



SEC. 54. MASCULINE CLAN. 1 3/ 

were adverse influences. Some of them could not gain 
a foothold until the rule of maternal descent was over- 
thrown. The successful military leader saw the impor- 
tance of having soldiers educated from boyhood in the 
same drill, accustomed to trust one another, with the 
same life-long allegiance, and the same general perma- 
nent interests. The men wanted to be masters, not 
slaves of their wives; owners, not tenants at will of their 
homes. 

By such influences, the feminine clan was overthrown 
over a large part of the globe, but precisely how or 
where the change was first made we do not know. So 
soon as one tribe had been well organized on the basis of 
masculine pedigree, the advantages of its social system 
were proved by its superior military strength, — the chief 
test of human institutions, in the early grades of culture. 

When the wife became faithful to a single husband, 
when paternity became comparatively certain, and when 
degrees of relationship were traceable as distinctly on 
the side of the father as on that of the mother, there was 
no longer social need of the clan. Now, for the first 
time, the idea of the family began to be conceived as an 
association of a man with a wife or several wives and his 
children, under his control, all the members of the asso- 
ciation being related to others in the community by 
definite grades of affinity or of lineal or collateral con- 
sanguinity, on both sides of the parentage. The recog- 
nition of these degrees suggested better limitations, than 
those of clan exogamy, in the choice of spouses. There 
was much more reason to be governed by regard for 
descent from a common grandparent or great-grandpar- 
ent, than for that from a very remote and perhaps mythical 
ancestor on only one side. 



138 A HISTORY OF MANKIND., 

If the clan had been exclusively social in its charac- 
ter it would have disappeared with feminine descent. 
But it was also political and religious, and its influences 
in these respects had not diminished. It was still the 
sovereign political organization, with the only power of 
givmg efficient protection to individuals; and in many 
places it was indispensable for that purpose. Besides, 
its importance had been increased by the development of 
a system of public worship of which it . became the chief 
custodian. Such influences in favor of the clan were 
sufficient to maintain it long after the abandonment of 
feminine descent on which it was originally founded. 

Thus the masculine clan succeeded to the feminine 
clan, preserving the same principle of exogamy. It took 
possession of most of North America west of the Mis- 
sissippi, of part of Australia, and of part of Asia. It ex- 
isted in Ancient Greece and Italy. Remains of it are 
found in Hindostan and China, where persons of the 
same family name are not permitted to marry. In all 
China there are only four hundred family names, with 
five hundred thousand persons to each on an average. 

Sec 65. Capture. — The rule of male descent may have 
been recognized first in the children of women taken 
from hostile tribes by chiefs or distinguished warriors. 
Such captives became the exclusive property of their 
captors, and their children, distinguished by a known 
posterity, became the favorites of their fathers. As such 
wives were desirable, and yet were not obtainable in war 
by the majority of men, a custom of obtaining women by 
simulation of capture from friendly clans or tribes arose, 
and spread over many countries.^ 

In parts of Australia, all wives are obtained by cap- 
ture. The man who wants a wife, watches the young 



SEC. 66. POLYANDRY. 1 39 

women of the suitable clan and class until he finds a fa- 
vorable opportunity to seize the one he chooses ; he 
knocks her senseless with his club, and then, perhaps 
with the assistance of some friends drags her away. 
This is the only wedding ceremony. The assent of the 
woman is not asked, and if asked could not be granted 
without gross violation of the proprieties. She expects 
and desires to be treated in this way, because it is the 
only respectable method of matrimony. Brides are 
taken by force or with show of force among the Eskimos 
at Cape York, the Armenians, the Kaffirs, the Mandin- 
goes, the Tungooses, the Kamtschatkans, some Bed- 
ouins, and some tribes in the Amazon valleys. 

The pretense of force is a survival of the custom of 
real capture ; which latter, however, was, in most cases, a 
custom recognized by the comity of clans or tribes. It 
was not like murder, something to be avenged to the 
death. No tribe depended for wives exclusively on 
women taken in real warfare ; and the masculine clan 
could never have been organized, if it had waited until it 
could take all its women by hostile force. 

The polyandrous and polygynous habits of the femi- 
nine clan were not in harmony with the spirit of the mas- 
culine clan, under the influence of which they gradually 
diminished. Society advanced towards the idea of the 
family, but for long ages the idea remained vague, and its 
adoption in general practice was subjected to many limit- 
ations. The modern family has risen on the ruins of 
the clan ; so long as the latter was potent, the former 
was weak. 

Sec. 66. Polyandry. — Although abandoned in many 
tribes when the feminine clan was overthrown, in others 
polyandry continued to maintain its existence. It is 



140 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

now the dominant matrimonial system among the Cash- 
merians, the Thibetans, the Nairs, the Todas/ and the 
Coorgs, and it is tolerated among the Kalmucks, Aleuts, 
Eskimos, Orinocos, Maypures, and Hottentots. It was 
found occasionally among the Maoris, Marquesans and 
many North American tribes east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, as well as among the nobles of ancient Sparta and 
mediaeval Venice. 

Among the Nairs, Thibetans, and Cashmerians all the 
husbands of one wife are usually brothers. After the 
eldest brother marries, the younger ones live in his 
house. When polyandry is the general rule of the 
community, it is accompanied by the habit of exposing 
many of the female infants, as among the Todas and 
Marquesans; when it is the rule only of a dominant 
class, as among the Spartans and Venetian nobles, it 
grows out of the inability of some men to maintain 
separate families in the style demanded of their rank. 
The communities in which polyandry now exists con- 
tain about seven million people in the aggregate. 

Most of the Toda families are polyandrous, but po- 
lygyny is also found among them. As the man, who 
marries the eldest of several sisters, is entitled to all the 
younger ones, so under some circumstances, the woman 
who marries the eldest of several brothers, can take the 
others. In the Parana valley. South America, marriage 
contracts frequently stipulate that the husband may 
have several wives or that the wife may have several 
husbands.^ 

Among the Maoris, Marquesans, Bafiotes and Nat- 
chez, the privilege of having several husbands belongs 
only to the women of noble rank. In Congo, and the 
Mariana Islands, the noble women can divorce husbands 



SEC. (yy. POLYGYNY. \^.\ 

of inferior rank at pleasure, and for this reason prefer in- 
feriors. The daughter of a Bechuana head chief cannot 
marry an inferior, but while unmarried, she can have as 
many lovers as she wishes.^ 

In Ashantee, Congo, Loango, and Akka, many daugh- 
ters of high chiefs refuse to marry but make frequent 
changes in their lovers so that no one shall presume on 
the favor shown to him. Custom in Dahomey permits 
the king's daughter to invite any mac^ to her chamber. 

Sec. 6^ . Polygyny. — The masculine clan soon checked 
and finally suppressed the polyandrous customs inher- 
ited from the feminine clan, and established the polyg- 
ynous family in which the wives were required, under 
ordinary circumstances, to be faithful to the husband. 
This polygynous family prevailed so extensively and so 
long, down to our own time, that it may be considered 
one of the ordinary features of savage and barbarous life. 
Out of hundreds of tribes, not half a dozen are monoga- 
mous. Indeed, to many savages, polygyny seems equally 
necessary to the women and to the men ; to the former 
because of the excess of their number, many of the men 
being killed in war ; and to the latter because there must 
be an interval of four years after the expectation of a 
birth before the child shall be deprived of a mother's 
milk by another child. ^ On this point public opinion is 
strict in some savage regions of Africa and Polynesia ; 
as it is in various modern, and was in many ancient bar- 
barous, countries. The Congoese husband must keep 
away from his wife until her child can carry a calabash 
of water without spilling. In Fiji, if a woman has a 
child before its predecessor is four years old — the age for 
weaning — her relatives take great, and sometimes mortal 
offense at the husband. Even in the tribes possessing 



142 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

milk-yielding animals, monogamy would be considered 
discreditable to a chief.^ 

The red warrior, who buys the eldest in a group of 
several sisters, has a recognized claim to buy the younger 
ones when they arrive at womanhood. For the sake of 
domestic harmony, he prefers that all his wives should 
be sisters. The Cherokee man must add his mother-in- 
law to his list of wives when she becomes a widow. 

Sec. 6S. Girl's Position. — In most tribes of Africa, 
Polynesia, and America, custom places no restriction 
save those of rank and blood relationship, on unmarried 
women. Every village of the Tongans^ and Wanyam- 
wuezi^ has a large hut with a single room for the exclu- 
sive use of the girls and their lovers. In eastern Equa- 
torial Africa, the Foosa girl has a hut for herself and her 
visitors.^ Among the Kamtschatkans the girl boasts of 
the number of her lovers, and so in certain cases does the 
woman among the Dakotas.'' The Santals, Gonds and 
Wanikas have festivals for the unmarried women and 
their favored adorers. Among the exceptional tribes, 
which demand strict conduct from their unmarried 
women, are the Cheyennes, Apaches, Abipones, Fans, 
and some Patagonians. 

Sec. 69. Wife's Positioit. — The overthrow of the femi- 
nine clan led to the custom of buying wives. Youth, 
beauty, noble blood, membership in a powerful clan, and 
skill in fishing or diving for mollusks, are among the ele- 
ments of a girl's marketable value. In many tribes, the 
possession of a number of daughters is a source of 
wealth. The purchaser is entitled to a return of his 
money if the woman should be sterile, if she should 
elope, or if she should die before having a child. Some 
customs permit her to leave her husband, whenever she 



SEC. 69. wife's position. 143 

finds a preferred lover who will pay her original price. 
Her relatives by blood retain an interest in her, avenge 
her murder by anybody but her husband, and in some 
tribes can demand payment from him when he kills her. 

Generally in savage tribes, not organized on the basis 
of feminine descent, the husband is the absolute owner 
of the wife. He can divorce, sell, mutilate, or kill her 
without the least responsibility to anyone. He has the 
same ownership and control of his children. If his wife 
be entitled by local customs to a divorce and she wishes 
one, she cannot leave him while she expects or suckles 
a child ; for the children belong to the father and must 
be delivered to him in such condition that they can live 
without further assistance from the mother. 

In countries where a comfortable hut can be erected 
by the labor of one person in a few hours, each wife has 
her separate dwelling, and the husband makes his home 
for alternate days or weeks in each. Jealousy is per- 
haps not more frequent in polygynous than in monoga- 
mous families, and the first wife is pleased when her hus- 
band marries again. The possession of several is a mark 
of the man's dignity. He is subject to no penalty for 
paying attention to women not in his family. A Kaffir 
proverb expresses the idea accepted in some of the more 
advanced tribes, " Man is for all women ; woman is for 
her husband alone." Among the Redmen, the man lives 
with all his wives and children in one room. 

The husband does not converse with his wife before 
company ; he does not eat with her ; he treats her as an 
inferior being, or slave. When she goes with him, she 
must walk at a distance behind him. If there be a bur- 
den for one, she carries it ; if a horse for one, he rides 
it. In many tribes, even in seasons of superabundance, 



144 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

she is forbidden to eat certain delicacies. To her, ava, 
turtle, pork, and cocoa-nut are prohibited in parts of 
Polynesia ; chicken and goat in Ishogoland; pork among 
the Khonds ; certain fish in some parts of Australia ; 
human flesh and various other delicacies in Melanesia, 
and in the Mbaya region, monkey and capibara to the 
married woman; and all quadrupeds, birds and large fish 
to the girls. In the countries where these prohibitions 
respectively prevail, they belong to the local ecclesiasti- 
cal systems and the priests threaten violators with the 
terrors of divine wrath. 

In Dahomey and Cueva where the woman are efficient 
soldiers, in Balondaland where they own and till the 
fields, and in those regions where they get food supplies 
of shell-fish by diving, or fish by angling, or roots by 
digging, they are treated by the men as social equals. 

In those tribes which require the husband to capture 
his wife or to elope with her, he must nevertheless pay 
for her ; and if he cannot pay at once, he may be bound, 
so long as he lives, to give to her father part of every large 
animal killed by him. Among the Garos and Bhinyas of 
Hindostan, some peninsular Malays, and the Ahitas of 
the Philippine Islands, some liberty of choice is allowed 
to the girl, but after she has accepted the suitor, he 
must nevertheless pay for her. 

In Casemanche, the girl may be betrothed in infancy, 
and married when she becomes a young woman. On 
her wedding day she receives a chemise which she must 
wear with the obligation of fidelity, the obligation expir- 
ing when the garment is worn out. As beating with 
a club or stone is part of the process of washing in that 
country, the young married woman may often be seen 
pounding part of her wardrobe very industriously be- 



SEC. 70. MARRIAGE, ETC. 1 45 

tween two rough stones/ In certain Malagasy tribes 
while the husband is absent from his village, his wife 
must be true to him/ In Dahomey, Japan, and parts of 
Hindostan and Malaysia, the occupation of the public 
woman is not disreputable, and many poor girls adopt 
it for a time for the purpose of learning the habits of po- 
lite society, and collecting money for a dowry. A hos- 
pitality -more generous than that of civilized communities 
is common among savages in all the continents. 

Sec. 70. Marriage, etc. — Savage tribes generally have 
no wedding ceremony, the importance of which, in civil- 
ized society grows out of the permanence of the matri- 
monial relation, the chastity or supposed chastity of the 
average bride, and the husband's promise to love and 
cherish her. The unrestricted or extensive promiscuous- 
ness in the early culturesteps, and the capture, purchase 
and enslavement of the women, tended to prevent display 
on the occasion of a marriage. In very few savage tribes 
is there any serious ceremony ; among the exceptions are 
the weddings of chiefs and nobles before priests in Tahiti/ 
and of warriors before chiefs in New England.'^ 

The Andamanese man and women may treat each 
other as husband and wife through a season or two, but 
after the birth of a child, they separate and select other 
partners.^ Marriages for a few days are permitted among 
the Piutes f for a week or month among the Hurons f 
without obligations of fidelity on either side among the 
Akkas,^ and on probation among the Todas, Congoese, 
Greenlanders, and many North Americans. In some 
Polynesian groups there is no permanence in the sexual 
relation until the couple have a child which they agree to 



rear/ 



The Hassaniyeh Arab marriage contract binds the wife 
10 



146 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

to conjugal fidelity for a certain number of days — usually 
four — in every week. In making the bargain the hus- 
band haggles for five or six ; the father for two or three 
days.' 

The man's privilege of divorce is often used, especially 
by the poor man who can have only one wife at a time. 
When he sends her back to her father, he cannot reclaim 
the price paid, and the father does not object, as he can 
sell her again. The matrimonial relation is usually brief 
among the Damaras, Kasias and Aleuts. The Guaycurus 
and Chiriguanas of South America and the Eskimos often 
trade wives. Among the Chippewyans and the Bush- 
men, the strongest man is allowed by custom to take the 
wife of the weaker. The question of relative strength is 
solved by wrestling. 

Divorce costs a camel in Arabia, and many men there 
have paid the price over and over again. Burckhardt 
saw a man forty-five years old who had had fifty wives, 
and only one at a time.^ Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed, 
had two hundred wives in all, at different times ; and a 
dyer of Bagdad, is famous for having wedded nine hun- 
dred different women.^° 

In those regions where the wife is bought, there is no 
limitation to the age at which she may be delivered to 
her husband. Often she is paid for when not more than 
six or eight years old, and sometimes at such a tender 
age she is taken to the home of the purchaser. Some 
travelers attribute the early fading and common sterility 
of savage women to the abuses accompanying their pre- 
mature marriage.^^ As there are child wives, so there are 
child husbands. The latter are found now among some 
hill tribes of Hindostan,^'"^ and among the Kirghiz,^^ as 
they were in the last century among the Russians. By 



SEC. 72. COUVADE. I47 

marrying his child son to a young woman, the Russian 
farmer obtained a cheap servant and concubine. 

Sec. 71. Brother Adoption. — The custom of adopting a 
brother by a mixture of blood prevails over much of 
Africa, Polynesia and Malaysia, and is found in North 
and South America and Western Asia. It existed also 
in ancient Europe. The methods of making the mixture 
are numerous, including simultaneous sucking of the 
blood from cuts in the upper right arms of the two who 
adopt each other, and the smearing of the blood of both 
on bread which is eaten by both ; and putting it in beer 
which is drunk, and mixing it with tobacco which is 
smoked. Among the Wanyamwuezi, powder is rubbed 
into the cuts so they shall remain visible reminders of the 
relationship. The Syrians smear some of the blood on 
paper which is enclosed in a little case and carried on the 
neck as a sacred amulet. The brothers adopted by a 
mixture of blood, owe the highest devotion to each other ; 
must defend each other at the risk of their lives ; must 
regard each other as having almost equal rights in their 
property and wives ; must avenge the wrongs done to 
each other; and in some tribes must exchange names, so 
that each abandons his own former name and assumes 
that of the other. 

Sec. 72. Couvade. — The couvade, a custom requiring 
the father to lie abed for a week or two after the birth of 
his child, prevails or prevailed extensively among many 
savage tribes, including the Lower CaHfornians, the Sho- 
shones, some New Mexicans, the Arowaks, the Abipones, 
the Coroados, the Caribs, the Greenlanders, the Kam- 
tschatkans, and some Congoes, and Dyaks, as well as 
among some barbarous peoples of Asia Minor in the 
time of Xenophon, among some people in modern China, 



14^ A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and among the civilized Corsicans and Basques of the 
XlXth century.^ A kindred custom limiting the diet 
of the father for a few weeks exists in Fiji, Borneo, Mada- 
gascar and Kafiirland.^ While in bed during the cou- 
vade, the Abipone father is carefully protected against 
cold breezes, so that he shall not take a catarrh ; he is; 
restricted in his diet, and his eyebrows are pulled out.. 
A neglect of these precautions exposes the child to great 
danger of early death or life-long misfortune. Even after 
rising from his bed, the father must not exert himself 
much. During the first three weeks after the birth, he- 
must not cut down a tree, nor catch a large fish nor kill 
a large quadruped nor even shoot off a gun.^ Similar 
restrictions rest on the father of the newly-born child 
among the Land Dyaks.* If a man disregards the rules; 
of the couvade, among the Mundrucus, he is not con- 
sidered the father of the child. ^ 

This custom had its origin presumably in the idea 
that the father must do penance to appease the spirits or 
gods who are trying to take the life of the infant ; and it 
perhaps did not begin until after the overthrow of the 
feminine clan, when the father by laying claim to the 
child, became, to a certain extent, responsible for the 
preservation of its life. We do not find the couvade im 
any of the tribes organized in feminine clans. In the Bi- 
ble we read that '* the Lord struck the child, that Uriah's; 
wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. David 
therefore besought God for the child ; and David fasted,, 
and went in and lay all night upon the earth."® The 
motive of the Jewish monarch in this penance was to 
induce Yahveh to spare the life of the child,^ and as the 
procedure in the couvade is analogous to that of David,, 
so we may presume that the custom had its origin in a 



I 



SEC. J I. INFANCY, ETC. 1 49 

similar motive. The father does not wait until his in- 
fant falls sick, but performs his penance partly for the 
purpose of protecting it, in its first days, against the at- 
tacks of the evil spirits. In some tribes both the mother 
and her new-born child are unclean, and it is sacrile- 
rgious for the villagers generally to touch them or go near 
them until they are purified, the couvade of the father 
being part of the ceremony of purification.^ 

Sec. 73. Infajicy^ etc. — To the savage woman, parturi- 
tion is seldom prolonged, painful, or debilitating.^ She 
does not take to her bed, nor make an outcry, nor need 
assistance. Among the Dakotas, a child is disgraced 
By the mother who shrieks or even groans in giving 
it birth. In many regions, the woman, who expects to 
liave a child, goes away alone and in an hour comes 
"back with it in her arms. 

In Tasmania and parts of New Guinea, the new-born in- 
fant is buried to its neck in warm ashes or sand. In most 
2*Iorth American tribes, it is tied on a board covered with 
a layer of moss, and there it is kept for more than a 
year, though taken off every day for the purpose of 
■washing.^ A string at the top of the board serves to 
liang up the baby, and when this is attached to the flex- 
ible limb of a tree and also to the big toe of the mother, 
she can rock the cradle while sitting at her household 
work. 

Savage population is nearly stationary in number. A 
large increase cannot be continuous because there is no 
Tapid development of industry to supply an increased 
stock of food. Children are not numerous. A mother 
with five living children is rare ; with eight, very rare. 
Among the causes of the paucity of offspring in tribes 
■which have not begun to die out, are the frequency of 



150 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

famines and of seasons with scanty supplies of nutritious 
food ; the excessive toil imposed on the women, and the 
customs of early marriages, of abortion and of suckling; 
three or four years. 

Infanticide is not prohibited by any savage govern- 
ment. It is rare in Africa, common in Australia and 
America, frequent in Melanesia, and very frequent in 
Micronesia and Polynesia. In the Hawaiian group, two 
children out of three, on an average, were abandoned at 
birth f and the proportion was equally large in some 
other Polynesian groups. In Ratak, no woman, unless 
a chiefs wife, was permitted to rear more than three 
children.* In the Kingsmill Islands, after a woman had 
two living children, she usually prevented the birth of 
others.^ The Tukopians did not allow more than twa 
boys to grow up in a family.^ A child of cross-bloody 
that is one whose parents were of different ranks, was 
dispatched in Polynesia and Micronesia, as was one of 
half white blood in Australia.^ Many Abipone women 
abandon their new-born infants for fear that otherwise 
their husbands will take additional wives or run after 
other women.^ 

Experience has shown that the milk of the mother is 
insufficient for the maintenance of two children until 
they are old enough to depend on other food ; and 
therefore in many tribes the birth of twins is considered 
unlucky ; and one at least is sacrificed. Among the 
Arebos both are dispatched.^ The cutting of the upper 
teeth before the lower ones is a cause for condemning^ 
children to death among some African tribes ; and turn- 
ing from side to side in sleep, among some Americans. 
Deformed children and motherless infants are abandoned 
everywhere. In the Kingsmill group, poor parents oftea 



SEC. 74. SON-IN-LAW SHYNESS. I5I 

expose girls because they would need dowries at mar- 
riage. 

The frequency of infanticide among savages must not 
be attributed to a lack of affection on the part of the 
women. They are generally kind mothers, and when 
they have once suckled a child, they rarely consent to 
its death. In many Polynesian islands, they had to 
choose between infanticide and the starvation of the 
adults. 

Sec. 74. Son-in-law Shyness. — A custom almost as 
wonderful as couvade, to high civilization, is that of son- 
in-law shyness, which forbids certain persons related by 
marriage to see or speak to each other. Among the 
North American savages generally, the Arowaks, the 
Caribs, and the Arabs, the son-in-law must not look the 
mother-in-law in the face ; and if he has anything to say 
to her, even in her presence, he must tell a third person 
to tell it to her ; and if there be no third person to serve 
as a medium of communication, he must look away from 
her, and talk as if addressing himself to another. When 
a Kaffir mother meets her daughter's husband she must 
turn aside and sit with her back to the road until he has 
passed. The Kaffir wife is not permitted to see the father 
or uncle of her husband or to pronounce their names. 
In some tribes of central Africa, the affianced man must 
not see the parents of his prospective wife. The Mongol 
or Kalmuck wife must not speak to her husband's father ; 
and the Chinaman must not see his daughter-in-law. In 
one of the Gilbert Islands, years elapse after marriage 
before the wife dares to speak to any man save her hus- 
band.^ The rules of son-in-law shyness vary greatly in 
the persons to whom they apply and the method of their 
application in different tribes, and are found extending 



152 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

over a large part of the savage world ; but not in any 
of the tribes composed of feminine clans. They are 
parts of the system of masculine descent, devised to give 
to the husband control over his wife, and may have been 
influenced also by the animosities resulting from the 
capture of wives. 

Sec. 75. Womanhood. — Among the tribes which have 
outgrown the feminine clan, the appearance of woman- 
hood in the young girl, instead of being reserved as a 
modest secret, is treated as a proper matter for general 
notoriety or as an occasion of public festivity. She is 
regarded as a piece of merchandise to be sold at the first 
opportunity. Her marketable condition is announced 
by a distinctive girdle or headdress in part of Pennsyl- 
vania ;^ by tattoo among the Polynesians, Fijians, Pimas 
and Gonds ; by cicatrices among the Australians ; by 
filing the teeth among the Batta Malays ; by breaking 
out a tooth or several teeth among the Tasmanians, 
Batokas, and many other tribes ; by pulling out the eye- 
brows and eyelashes among the Apaches ; by inserting 
an ornament in the lip or nose in certain tribes ; by an 
invitation to all acquaintances to call at the tent and con- 
gratulate the family among the Dakotas ; by proces- 
sion and a feast among the Mandingoes, Fans, Akkas 
and Cape Palmas negroes ;^ by a dance among the 
Marutse^ and some Californians ;^ by subjecting the girl 
to a three days' fast among the Yumas ; by flogging her 
among the Campas of South America f by burying to 
the neck in sand for twenty-four hours near San Diego,® 
and by imprisoning her for months in Alaska and Cen- 
tral America.'^ 

Sec. *j6. Modesty. — Modesty is a conventional standard 
of propriety, harmonizing with customs adapted to the 



SEC. J J NUDITY. 153 

climate, dwellings, customs, laws and superstitions of the 
country. It varies with time and place and general cul- 
ture. Those tribes which are ordinarily nude, which 
have only one small sleeping apartment for a family of six 
or eight persons, and which attach no value to virginity 
in the girl or to conjugal chasity in the wife, cannot have 
the same rules of modesty as other tribes with different 
customs and ideas. In the valley of the Orinoco, the 
woman is immodest who appears among strangers with- 
out a coat of paint. An aboriginal girl there, to please 
a European visitor, put on a gown, but when some of 
her tribe appeared she was much abashed and threw off 
the garment hastily. 

The scantier the ordinary clothing of the Zulus, the 
greater their shame when surprised without any. It has 
been observed that some nude African tribes are less 
unchaste, and by civilized standards less immodest than 
other tribes which are habitually clothed. Fashionable 
styles of dress in certain parts of South America and the 
Pacific islands are more immodest than absolute nudity. 

The conversation of savages is often very gross, and 
the same remarks may be made of many of their amuse- 
ments and customs. From their earliest infancy, children 
see sights and hear expressions which are carefully hid- 
den in civilized countries. At the most fashionable 
entertainments of Polynesia and Micronesia, the highly- 
honored Areoi nobles sing the coarsest songs and act 
most indecent scenes.^ 

Sec. 77. Nudity. — Among savages generally the senti- 
ment that nudity is immodest, if not absolutely lacking, 
is very weak. In tropical climates throughout the year, 
and in temperate regions, in the hot season, the children 
who have not arrived at puberty are nearly all naked, 



154 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and so are the adults in Tasmania, parts of Australia, 
the Pelew, Mariana and Torres islands, and among the 
Ovambos, Batokas, Obongos, Bubes, Lufiras, Wakambas, 
Kaironoos, Goldas, Botocudos, Orinocos, Arowaks, Ta- 
pajos, Puris, and Coroados of both sexes. To distin- 
guish himself from his subjects, the chief of the Musgus 
wears clothes. The men of Shir, Nuehr, Bari, Mahenge, 
New Caledonia, and California and the Maori warriors, on 
military expeditions, are nude and so are the married 
women of Ganguella, Watusi, Uape, Congo, and parts of 
Australia and Melanesia, and the unmarried women of 
Fan, Dor, Nuehr, Dinka, Shillook, Ashira, Obbo, Tupi, 
Guaype, and parts of Australia and South America. 
The Mandombe bride, without any clothing save a coat 
of whitewash, calls on her friends to announce her ap- 
proaching marriage.^ 

The general rule of savage life is that as the wife must 
be stricter in her conduct than the girl, so also she shall 
be more careful to clothe herself In Fiji, the only dress 
of the marriageable girl is a girdle with fringe three 
inches long ; of the childless wife a foot long ; of the 
wife with a child, a foot and a half long. 

The savage woman usually wears no clothing above 
the waist in warm weather, and a small motive induces her 
to throw off that below the waist. Thus if she has to 
walk across a stream where she will be splashed, she 
takes it off A Kaffir girl in a mixed company received 
a present of a new dress, and immediately took off the 
old one, so that she could put on the new one. In many 
tribes the women are dressed while away from home or 
at home entertaining visitors, and nude at other times. 

Sec. 78. Clothing. — The most common feminine gar- 
ment is a fringe girdle, the fringe, from three to eighteen 



SEC. y^. CLOTHING. 1 55 

inches long, consisting of flags, reeds, strips of bark, twine, 
or leather thongs. If beads are procurable, they are much 
prized for decorating this simple but important article of 
apparel. Loin-cloths, aprons, short skirts and cloaks 
are also fashionable, the preferred materials for them, on 
account of solidity of texture and fitness for ornamenta- 
tion, being woven cloth or leather; but for lack of these 
bark cloth is much used. 

The Wahehe woman wears a string of beads round 
her waist with a tail hanging down behind; and it would 
be highly unbecoming for her to go into company with- 
out the tail. The Watuta, Wanyuema, Shillook and 
Vat^ women have string girdles with an apron or fringe in 
front and a tail behind, and the tail should be longer than 
the appendage in front. The dress of the obscurely fair 
sex in the Apono and Ishogo tribes consists of two pieces 
of cloth, one on each side of the body from the armpits 
to the knees. These pieces must meet behind ; whether 
they meet in front or not is less important. The Dor 
women comply with the requirements of modesty, as 
they understand it, by wearing a little twig hanging down 
in front from a string girdle. An apron six inches 
square attached to a similar girdle suffices for the mar- 
ried women of Fan, Shir, Bari, Monbuttoo, Mundrucu and 
some New Guinea tribes. 

The savage in the temperate zone bears with compar- 
ative indifference a degree of cold which would cause 
great discomfort to the civilized man. He not only 
seems comfortable when nearly naked in a freezing tem- 
perature, but when he receives a piece of cloth, he will 
wear it in cold weather not on the chest or abdomen, 
which we consider the most sensitive parts to chills, 
but on the shoulders. Thus are worn the small and 



156 . A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

solitary deerskin of the aboriginal Californian/ the seal- 
skin of the Fuegian, and the cloak of the Abipone'^ and 
Mbaya women. ^ 

The Eskimos and many North American tribes make 
leggings, trousers ; coats and coverings for the feet v/ith 
the aid of the needle, but savages generally use no sev/ed 
garments. In Polynesia, Australia and Africa, there 
is no attempt to fit bark cloth, woven cloth, matting or 
skins, to the body or limbs. The prehistoric Europeans 
in tilling culture before the discovery of bronze, wore 
sewed clothing of skins and linen. Nearly all savages go 
bareheaded ; and few wear a covering for the feet. 

Sec. 79. Ornaments. — For the sake of ornament, the 
savage loads his nose, lips, ears, wrists and ankles with 
rings, and his arms, legs, neck and waist with heavy coils 
of wire. He sacrifices his comfort to his vanity. He 
invests a considerable part of his wealth in the purchase 
of an oppressive burden. 

A Mittoo man struts about with a chain of half-inch 
iron welded on his neck, that is if he cannot afford copper 
or brass, which are more stylish, but are not within reach 
of people of scanty or moderate means. A Wanyam- 
wuezi girl, to be in the height of fashion, should have a 
girdle of half-inch hemp rope hidden under a wrapping 
of fine brass or copper wire. The Bongo covers both 
arms from wrist to elbow with brass rings, a quarter of 
an inch thick.^ The Chumberi woman, if in moderate 
station, wears a brass collar, weighing at least twenty 
pounds, soldered on her neck ; if rich, the weight should 
be thirty pounds.^ Among the Dinkas, it is not a rare 
occurrence to see a person carrying forty pounds of cop- 
per ornaments.^ If fashionable, a Santal woman should 
carry thirty-four pounds of metallic ornaments, including 



SEC. 80. HAIR DRESSING. 1 5/ 

four in each of her bracelets and anklets, and eighteen 
in her collar.* She would doubtless feel miserable if 
she should meet a Congo belle with a load of seventy- 
five pounds, including more than sixty in her collar 
alone.'' The Wanika woman wears a quarter-inch brass 
wire closely coiled around her leg from ankle to knee ; 
and the Masai girl, besides having such wrappings on 
her legs, has others of like material on her arms from 
wrist to elbow. These coils put on tightly when the girl 
is young, and never taken off, prevent the growth of the 
muscles, obstruct ablution, cause troublesome sores and 
hinder all movements. But then it is the fashion. The 
Taveta girl, is content with wire coils from wrist to elbow. 
The M-teitagirl carries twenty or thirty pounds of beads. 
Such ornaments as are worn in ears, nose, lips and teeth 
will be mentioned in other sections. 

Sec. 80. Hair Dressing. — In many savage tribes the 
hair is dressed elaborately. It is shaved wholly or partly, 
bleached, dyed, smeared with grease, stiffened with clay 
or glutinous material, or plaited with its own strands or 
with twine, in patterns which may be uniform in family, 
clan or tribe, so as to advertise the wearer's nationality, 
rank or pedigree. The Andamanese, and some Fijians, 
Wagogos, Waswahilis and Tasmanians, shave the head 
clean. Many Redmen shave off or pull out the hair of 
the head save a spot on the vertex, where a scalp lock is 
preserved. Much of the head is shaved by the Ovambos, 
Batokas, Wagandos, Watusi, Watutas, Wisigas, Zulus, 
Marquesans, Fijians and Hawaiians, leaving crests, coro- 
nets, ridges, or spots of hair, or bare spots amidst the 
hair. 

The most elaborate hair dressing is that of the La- 
tookas, whose hair is interwoven with twine and covered 



158 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

with beads so elaborately, that years are required to com- 
plete the work. In one instance the task was not finished 
until after a lapse of eight years. ^ Next to the Latookas, 
in such extravagance, are the Ishogos, Ashangos, Bornus 
and Fijians,all of which tribes have large mop-like head- 
dresses which they cannot comb out nor rest on when 
lying down. They sleep, not with the head on a pillow, 
but with the neck on a little trestle. The Fijian head- 
dress is frequently a foot, and occasionally twenty inches 
in diameter. The Ishogo wears his hair in a cylinder 
interwoven with vegetable fibre rising ten inches above 
the skull ; and all the hair below the base of the cylinder 
is shaved off.^ The Ashango man and the Monbuttoo 
woman wear a tower of hair similar to that of the Ishogo, 
but not quite so elaborate. The Bornu woman divides 
her hair from forehead to the base of the occiput into 
three parallel sections, each of which is worked up into 
a high roll and kept in place with a stiffening of wax.* 
The wearers of these mops and baskets cannot comb or 
wash their hair, and for scratching, must use long bod- 
kins. The Banyai"^ of South Africa and the Tannese^ di- 
vide the hair into hundreds of little parcels, and wrap 
each from end to end with thread, so that the head seems 
to be covered with twine, six inches long and a sixteenth 
of an inch thick. The Edeeyah, on the western coast of 
Africa, makes his hair into curly tufts stiffened with 
grease and clay, so that his head looks as if covered with 
a hundred short cigars fastened to the scalp. The Fulah 
woman has similar tufts colored deep blue. Some Afri- 
cans shave off part of the hair, and plaster the remainder 
into clumps, with the shape and size of buffalo horns. 

Nearly all savages dress their hair with some unguent. 
In Abyssinia the preferred material is mutton suet which 



SEC. 8l. OIL AND PAINT. 1 59 

has been chewed for two hours. Bear's grease is used 
by the Redmen, palm oil by the negroes, and cocoa-nut 
oil by the Polynesians. By the help of washes, dyes and 
paints, the natural black color of the hair is changed to 
white, gray, yellow, orange, red, brown, purple or blue, 
according to the custom of the tribe or the caprice of the 
individual. 

A fashion, that perhaps had its origin in the effort to 
get rid of troublesome insects,^ requires men and women, 
in many tribes, to carefully pull out or shave off all the 
hair on body or face, even the eyebrows and eyelashes. 

Sec. 8 1. Oil and Paint. — Unable to obtain handsome 
cloth with which to hide his body, the savage covers it 
with grease, paint, tattoo and scar. Besides being a pro- 
tection against cold, insects, sun and rain, a coat of 
unguent, in most hot countries inhabited by savages, is 
necessary for full dress. It may indicate the rank of the 
wearer. Nearly every kind of grease is used for such 
purposes, including human marrow and kidney fat. The 
last gives to the Australian the strength and courage of 
his slain enemy, as well as protection against insects. 
The Polynesians and Africans perfume their oil, but 
whether perfumed or not, it soon turns rancid and then, 
if the man can afford the expense, must be replaced with 
a new coat. 

In the Pacific Islands, turmeric is mixed w^ith the 
anointing oil, to give a rich brownish yellow color to the 
body. Black is preferred by the Haidahs, soot by the 
Thlinkeets, black or blue by the Maoris, red by the 
Indians of the Mississippi basin, red and white by the 
Australians, Congoese, and Andamanese ; and red by 
the men and blue by the women of Bonny. For festival 
occasions, the Areoi nobles of Polynesia had scarlet faces 



l60 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and black bodies. The Ganguellas paint their faces green. 
The Gain negroes, cover the front of the body with 
diamond-shaped blocks of alternating hues. The mili- 
tary uniform of Obbo is a combination of white, yellow 
and Vermillion patches or stripes. 

In some tribes, the skin, whether greased or not, must 
be stained. Among the Arabs and many African tribes, 
the palms, soles and finger-nails are dyed brownish red 
with henna. The body is stained orange and black by 
the Botocudos, blood red by the Caribs, and blue by the 
Bornuese, some Brazilians and some Zinder women. 
The legs are stained red with blue spots by the Guiana 
Indians ; the backs blue by Tahitian women ; the faces 
yellow by the Aheer women; the lips blue by the Fans, 
and blue or black by the Maoris ; and the gums black 
by the Watusi and yellow by some of the people of Sind. 

Sec. 82. Tattoo. — In ornamentation of the savage per- 
son, tattoo comes next to oil and paint. It is used with 
the greatest liberality in the tropics where the general 
nudity allows it to be seen at all seasons, but is also 
found in very cold climates, where it is ordinarily 
restricted to the face. However, it is not always intended 
for the inspection of strangers. The most complete tat- 
too is that of the Marquesans, whose bodies, face, scalp, 
neck and limbs to the tips of the fingers and toes, are 
covered, the scalp being shaved for the purpose. The 
Maoris and Mundrucus also indulge in elaborate tattoo. 
Most of the tattoo of the Fiji woman is between the waist 
and mid-thigh, where, after she has children, it is con- 
cealed by the fringed girdle. The Kayan Dyak woman 
has a similar decoration, but to exhibit it, she wears a 
skirt open at the sides. In many tribes, the tattoo is 
in beautiful lace-like patterns. An imitation stocking 



SEC. 82. TATTOO. 161 

covers the legs of the Pelew and Tahitian women. The 
tattoo of the Bari negro is Hke a covering of the fish 
scales; that of the Kanowit Dyak like chain armor. 

The tattoo of the Red Karen is limited to the back ; 
that of the Tongataboo woman to the palm ; that of the 
Ratak woman to the neck and bosom ; that of the Nono- 
mea woman to the shoulder and abdomen ; that of the 
Fan woman to the breast and abdomen ; that of the Tahi- 
tian man to the breast, leg, arm and hand ; that of the Ta- 
hitian woman to the leg below the knee and to the arm; 
that of the Micronesian man to the body and limbs ; that 
of the Toda woman to the chest, leg and arm ; that of 
the Nuehr chief to horizont* wrinkle-like lines on the 
forehead ; and that of the Eskimos, Aleuts, Chookchees 
and Tungooses to the face. 

Besides its purpose of decoration, tattoo serves in vari- 
ous tribes to designate blood or rank,^ to give a ferocious 
expression to the warrior,"'^ to make a record of some 
brave exploit or notable experience ; to consecrate the 
wearer to a fetish ^ ; to mark the ownership of a slave ; 
to announce the arrival of a girl or boy at puberty, or 
the admission of a young man into the warrior class ; or, 
as is supposed, to protect the persons against chills.* 

In Polynesia the process of tattooing is a religious 
ceremony, and is performed by priests, while the sub- 
ject is under a taboo or ecclesiastical consecration. 
Without tattoo the man has no favor with the gods; 
and he cannot enter a temple ; in Pelew the girl cannot 
marry .^ Among the Redmen, the warrior is often seen 
with his totem tattooed on his breast. The tattoo of the 
totem of a hostile tribe under a tomahawk or knife 
shows that he has slain an enemy. A Tahitian had all 
the islands known to him tattooed on his body, and thus 
II 



1 62 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

he carried his map of the world with him. A Polynesian 
wife was tattooed with the emblems of the male ances- 
tors of her husband ; she was a heraldic record.^ 

Many tribes require their members to be marked with 
scars, usually made by rubbing a cut through the skin 
with some pigment or acrid mineral, or by searing it with 
red-hot stone or metal. The breast and shoulders are the 
parts on which the scars are placed by most of the scari- 
fying tribes ; but the face, abdomen, shoulders, hips, 
arms and legs are also used. The patterns include 
straight lines, crescents, circles, and stars on a level with 
the adjacent skin, and lumps like peas, small and large 
beans, fingers, and eggs. They are produced in many 
different ways, one process being to thrust a needle 
through the skin, twist it and fasten it in the twisted 
position until the lump becomes permanent.^ The great- 
est number of scars habitually worn by the average man 
is perhaps in Bornu, where he has ninety-one, including 
twenty on each side of the face, between the mouth and the 
ear, six on each arm and leg, nine on each side above 
the hips, and one in the center of the forehead.^ The 
cicatrices of the Rubengas are compared in size to hen's 
eggs f those of the Kordofanese to pigeon's eggs ;^° those 
of New Guinea to fingers.^^ 

Sec. 83. Mutilations. — In Africa, Australia and Mi- 
cronesia, we find the habits of breaking' out, chipping 
and filing the teeth. Among the reasons given for these 
customs are the desire for a fashionable lisp,^ the dis- 
grace of having mouths like those of apes,^ or of eating 
with all one's teeth like a horse,* and the duty of making 
one's mouth resemble that of a cow.'' Some of the tribes 
which draw their reasons from cows do not possess those 
animals; as they break out teeth in both jaws, so they do 



SEC. 83. MUTILATIONS. 163 

not imitate their pretended models closely. Among the 
causes that may have led to the origin of these customs 
are the marking of captives, mutilation in mourning, or 
the subjection of young people to tests of endurance. 

The canine teeth are taken out by the Penangs ; the 
two upper middle incisors by the Micronesians, Batokos, 
Aponos, Ambriz, Missurongos, Ishogos, Wagogos, Ma- 
tongas, Marutse men and Ashango women ; the two 
lower middle incisors by the Bongos, Dinkas, Shirs, 
Wanyamwuezi, and many other tribes of Equatorial 
Africa ; the four lower incisors by the Shillooks, Wan- 
yoros, Latookas, and Bari men ; the four upper incisors 
by the Mushukulumbos, and the four incisors and two 
canine teeth of the lower jaw by the Karagwahs. 

By the Fans, Mushukungus, Apongos, Ashiras, Bush- 
ingas, some Congoese, and various tribes of New Guinea, 
all the front teeth, not broken out, are filed to points, 
" making their smile like that of a crocodile," as Liv- 
ingstone says. The corners of the lower incisors are 
chipped off, and those of the upper incisors are filed off 
by the Niamniams, for the purpose, as they explain it, of 
catching secure hold of their enemies in battle. In sev- 
eral tribes of the Congo basin, a diamond-shaped open- 
ing is broken out between the middle upper and lower 
incisors, perhaps, as Burton thinks, to make a place for a 
pipe. Triangular openings are broken in the incisors by 
the Damaras and the Ganguellas. 

Among the Eskimos, Greenlanders, Fuegians and 
many North American savages who have reached mid- 
dle life, the teeth are worn nearly to the level of the 
gums, probably in consequence of the sand and dirt in 
their food. The custom of filing down the teeth how- 
ever is practiced by the women of Timorlaut^ and Suma- 



164 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

tra^, and by some Indians of California^ Teeth worn to 
the level of the gums have been found in the skulls of 
the prehistoric inhabitants of France, Belgium and 
Denmark, and of the ancient Egyptians. 

Brass rivets in the teeth and little copper plates fast- 
ened, with rivets, on the teeth, are found among the 
Dyaks.' 

The teeth are stained blue, yellow or purple by the 
Fulah women, the three colors being sometimes found 
in one mouth. The Dyaks stain theirs black in mourn- 
ing ; and teeth stained red or black are not rare in the 
Micronesian and Melanesian islands. The teeth of 
Malays are prepared for taking dye, by filing off the 
enamel, and are generally discolored by the betel quid.* 

The custom of flattening the infantile skull, between 
boards, has prevailed among the Samoans, Hawaiians, 
Nicobarese, Caribs, Araucans, Quichuans, and many 
Redmen of modern times as well as among the ancient 
Scythians, and the prehistoric inhabitants of France^ 
Belgium, Wales, Hungary, Silesia, Southern Russia and 
Northern Africa. This distortion of the skull, or unmis- 
takable traces of it, have be«n found in all the continents 
save Australia. It may have had its origin in the habit 
of tying the head as well as the body to a board. Such 
fastening is convenient when infants are to be carried on 
horseback,^® and might be useful as a precaution for sud- 
den attack, when the mother wants to escape leading a 
child of five or six with one hand while, with the other, 
she carries a suckling. 

For the purpose of flattening its skull, the infant is 
tied with its back on a board on the upper end of which 
is tied a shorter board which presses on the forehead. 
The head takes the shape of a wedge with the edge at 



SEC. 83. MUTILATIONS. 1 65 

the vertex. Though this pressure continues for a year, 
the shape thus given is not permanent, as the skull grad- 
ually reverts towards the natural type, which however it 
never reaches. After having been accustomed to the 
pressure, the child cries when it is taken off^^ 

In the head-flattening tribes, a head of natural shape 
is considered ugly; and the privilege of beautification 
by the flattening process is denied to slaves. 

The Greenlanders, Hottentots, Tahitians and Suma- 
trans admire breadth in the nose, and press it flat, and 
the Botocudos mash down the nasal bones.^^ 

Besides gashing themselves in mourning, many savages 
cut off a finger joint until they have lost as many as they 
can spare. Some Australians tie a string tightly round 
the little finger of the left hand of the newly-born girl 
infant, and in a few days it is severed. The reason given 
for this mutilation is that that finger is in the way when 
the woman winds up a fish line. 

The women of the Congo,^^ and Loando desire to have 
pendent breasts, and pull them and tie bands over them 
so as to make them a foot long. The Wasagara, Sanda 
and Siamese women wrap cloths tightly round the body 
just below the armpit, so as to prevent the natural shape 
of the breast from being seen.^* The Samoan women are 
nude above the waist and carefully train the nipple so 
that it shall turn up.^" Singular mutilations about which 
our information is not very full are the amputations of 
the mammae of male Zingeros in Shoa,^® and of the 
Akalunga and Kasangulowa women," the boring of the 
nipples of warriors in Georgia for the insertion of pieces 
of cane ^® ; and the piercing of holes in the chest by the 
Eongos for the purpose of wearing wooden skewers 
there.'' 



l66 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Some Sumatrans pull their ears to make them stand- 
out from the head ; and various South American tribes 
stretch their ears so that it is said in exaggeration that a 
man can use one ear for a mattress and another for a 
covering while he sleeps. The Melanesians, the Indians 
of Georgia, and the Kukis cut out the interior lobe of 
the ear to make a hole for inserting ornaments. Some 
tribes pierce a dozen holes for rings round the border of 
the ear, or cut slits and wrap the separated edge with 
wire. The weight of the ornaments is so great in many 
cases that it is necessary to support the ear by strings or 
chains over the tops of the head.^" 

Among the articles carried in the ear holes are hollow 
cylinders three inches in diameter and four inches long" 
by the Caroline Islanders ; tobacco pipes by the Kusaye 
Melanesians ; pin-cushions by the Arowaks ; nosegays 
by some Amazon Indians ; fish-bladders, live snakes and 
feathers by the Indians of Georgia ; shell disks attached 
to stems four inches long and a quarter of an inch thick 
by the Marquesans ; pegs like a cigar in size and shape 
by the Monbuttoos; brass studs by the Waswahili ; large 
brass disks by the Tavetas ; and gourd-necks full of 
tobacco by the M'sagara. 

These methods of ornamenting the ears are not lim- 
ited to the women, but are practiced as extensively by 
the men, and are found in nearly all savage tribes. 
Alone among the Polynesians, the Hawaiians did not 
punch their ears. The ears of the people in the frigid 
zone are usually hidden on account of the cold, and 
therefore are not used as vehicles for ornaments. 

The savage nose carries ornaments thrust through the 
septum or the wings, and in some few tribes through the 
bridge. A hole in the septum is decorated with a por- 



SEC. 83. MUTILATIONS. 1 6/ 

cuplne quill, a feather or a stick eight inches long 
obstructing the nostrils, so that the wearer is compelled 
to breathe through his mouth f^ or it supports a ring two 
inches in diameter, and then he cannot eat or drink with- 
out lifting up the ring ; or it offers a passage for a string 
which is tied at the back of the head.^^ The lower part 
of the septum is cut out by the Klickatats.^^ The only 
ornaments worn in the nostrils are rings. In New Zea- 
land, feathers and sticks decorate a hole in the bridge of 
the nose,^ and in Mallicollo, Cook saw a cylinder of 
quartz an inch and a half long carried in the same place. 
Both lips and the cheek, near the corner of the mouth, 
are pierced for studs, pegs, blocks, rings or bead strings. 
Double-headed bone studs decorate the mouth corners of 
the Eskimos, and when the studs are out, the saliva 
escapes. The lower lip supports a bone stud among the 
Unalaskans and the Caribs ; a piece of cane among the 
Georgian Indians ; a cylinder of quartz four inches long 
among the Latookas ; a cylinder of the same material, 
three inches long and three quarters of an inch thick 
among the Mittoos ; a string of beads among the Kodi- 
aks ; a bung two inches in diameter among the Botocu- 
dos (so named from " botoque " Portuguese for bung) ; 
and block labrets three inches long and two wide among 
the Ahts. Dall mentions one such labret five inches 
long and two inches wide. This block drags the lip out 
of place, exposes the teeth and gums to view, and presses 
the teeth out of place ; and when taken out, the upper 
portion of the lip hangs down like a string. The Batoka 
women wear pulley-like rings three inches in diameter in 
both lips which then stick out horizontally like the bill 
of a bird ; but when the wearer laughs, the upper ring 
assumes a vertical position, partly hiding the eyes and 



1 68 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

allowing the end of the nose to be seen through the 
ring. 

Circumcision was common in the valley of the Nile 
as early as 3000 b. c.,^^ and was practiced by the Arabs, 
Libyans and other oriental peoples at the earliest date 
known to history or tradition. By Spencer, its origin is 
attributed to the policy of taking trophies from male 
captives without diminishing their value for slave labor. 
Lippert thinks the sacrifice of blood in worship may 
have been the main motive. Similar mutilations, some 
of them more painful and more remarkable, were prac- 
ticed in Australia and the Pacific Islands.^® 

Sec. 84. Social Development. — In social life, as in 
industry, we are not able to trace much development 
within the limits of any savage tribe. In some few 
countries we find traditions of customs ruder than those 
prevalent in modern times, but these traditions are too 
vague or too doubtful, in the date of origin, to be trust- 
worthy. In this as in other developments of savage 
culture, we must find the main traces of progress not in 
the advance of one tribe, but in the comparison of the 
various conditions of different tribes. The higher have 
grown out of the lower phases. 

We have seen that the family, in the modern sense of 
the word — that is, the man with his wife or wives and 
children — as a distinct component part of the State, 
either does not exist in the lowest known tribes, or oc- 
cupies a very unimportant place as compared with its 
position in civilized countries. The earliest social organ- 
ization, known to us by inference and not by direct ob- 
servation, was the promiscuous group, which gave way 
by a small change to the feminine clan. The latter re- 
tained the group as the main feature of the social organ- 



SEC, 84. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. 169 

ization, preserved the rule of maternal descent, and per- 
mitted half of the previous promiscuousness. The mod- 
ification was the least possible to be a substantial modifi- 
cation ; it was a great reform in the direction of the least 
resistance. 

In the course of progress, the feminine clan, having 
become unsatisfactory, gave way to another institution, a 
little higher on the scale of social development. Its 
successor, the masculine clan, retained the rule of trac- 
ing descent from one parent exclusively, but transferred 
it from the maternal to the paternal side. It restricted 
the polyandrous habits of the women in the earlier con- 
dition, but permitted the men to enjoy most of their 
previous polygynous privilege. It was another great 
reform in the direction of the least resistance. It gave 
the wife as an exclusive possession to the husband, 
made her chastity precious, and converted her and her 
virtue into articles of marketable value. It founded the 
family which, though long subordinate to the masculine 
clan, finally supplanted it. 

Monogamy, as the only legal sexual relation, is un- 
known in the large savage families — including Redmen, 
Negroes, and Australians, — and also in those families un- 
influenced by contact with a higher culture. Among 
other tribes it is rare. Although we may say in general 
terms, that it does not belong to the domain of savage 
life, still, attention may here be called to the fact that it 
continues the policy adopted in savagism, of placing 
more and more restriction on primitive promiscuousness. 
The feminine clan, the masculine clan, the polygynous 
family and the monogamous family form a series of in- 
creasing checks upon the sexual relation. 



CHAPTER V 

INTELLECTUAL LIFE. 

Section 85. Capacity. — The influence of advanced 
culture shows itself in many points, including the size 
of skull, which in the modern Euraryan has an average 
internal capacity of ninety-one cubic inches ; in the Afri- 
can eighty-five, and in the Australian seventy-nine.^ 
The first has five and a half per cent, more brain than the 
second, and twelve per cent, more than the last. Such a 
cerebral superiority in favor of the white man, and the 
advantages of his geograpfhical position, accumulating 
their influences for thousands of years, account for his 
higher mental development. 

The gratification of the physical wants, and the exer- 
cise of the coarser passions in war and the chase, occupy 
a much larger place relatively in the life of the savage 
than in that of the civilized man. The former has na 
occupations or amusements of a refined, intellectual char- 
acter, no art, no science, no literature, no theater, no 
book, no philanthropic institution. He lives in a small 
world.^ Such few pleasures as he has are much weak- 
ened by the dominant conditions of insecurity, distrust, 
and animosity. 

As compared with the civilized man, the savage 
spends much of his time in a condition of mental torpor. 

(170) 



SEC. 85. CAPACITY. I /I 

He has little continuity of thought, little depth of sym- 
pathetic feeling. His mental condition is half-way be- 
tween that of the civilized man and that of the brute. 
So soon as a few physical wants are gratified, he be- 
comes listless. Dr. Pickering who, as ethnologist of 
the Wilkes Exploring Expedition, had become familiar 
with many tribes, said the Fijians were the only savages, 
within the range of his observation, *' who could give 
reasons and with whom it was possible to hold a con- 
nected conversation."^ The average savage mind soon 
tires when led into unfamiliar lines of thought ; and for 
this reason, the attempts of scholars to investigate the 
languages, religion, and customs of low tribes often 
yield very meagre results. The informants are worried 
and confused by inquiries about the causes of their cus- 
toms about which they have never reasoned. The East 
Africans lose their patience within ten minutes, when 
questioned so long about their system of numeration.* 
The Abipones soon grow weary of examining any con- 
fused subject.^ The Aht of British Columbia, after a 
few minutes of questioning about matters requiring any 
effort of thought or memory, appears to rock to and fro 
out of mere weakness.^ The savage finds great difficulty 
in keeping up any steady intellectual effort, especially in 
unfamiliar lines of thought. His digestive system is 
better suited than that of the civilized man for alterna- 
tions of excessive repletion and prolonged hunger, but 
this physical irregularity is less potent, than mental in- 
stability, in rendering him averse to constant toil. He 
must be exposed to civilizing influences for generations, 
before he acquires the intellectual energy needed to fit 
him for high industrial productiveness. The inheritance 
of such energy by the mass of the people is a distin- 



1/2 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

guishing characteristic and most valuable possession of 
civilized life ; the lack of it in the savages, is a leading 
cause of their gradual extinction. 

On account of the weakness and unsteadiness of their 
reason, men in a low condition of culture are unable to 
form distinct conceptions of the remote future conse- 
quences of their conduct, or to organize extensive and 
-durable political or industrial combinations. They care 
little about logical consistency ; they make conflicting 
statements without perceiving that the conflict implies 
•error; and they do not try to lay down fundamental 
principles with which their actions and words must har- 
monize. The Malagasy, who has a high place in savag- 
ism, prays to his ancestors,^ and yet says that he will 
cease to exist when he dies. 

The Damara who is exceptionally stupid, though per- 
fectly familiar with " an infinity of local details" about 
the geography of his country, has no map of it in his 
mind. He may know the road from A to B, and from 
B to C, which last is equally distant from the other two 
points, and yet he has no idea of a straight line from A to 
C.^ However, such stupidity in regard to travel is rare 
among savages ; most tribes are acute not only in their 
perceptions and memories, but also in their general ideas 
and reasonings about the topography of the regions in 
ivhich they live. 

His keen senses, his open air life, and his habit of 
watching his game and spending much time in hunting and 
warfare, train the savage, notwithstanding his usual mental 
torpidity, to observe the face of nature very closely, and 
to correctly interpret signs that would not be observed 
hy civilized men, or would have no meaning for them. 
He recognizes individual men, horses, and cows by their 



SEC. 85. CAPACITY. 1/3 

tracks; he can follow each along a dusty road over which 
many others passed afterwards; can tell whether they were 
alone or in company, and how long a time approximately 
has elapsed since the track was made. Every pebble 
knocked from its natural resting place, every twig broken, 
and every plant stem crushed, has something to tell him. 
Civilized men never learn to equal the savage in suck 
perceptions and indications; they cannot give all their at- 
tention to the observation of such phases of nature. Be- 
cause of a lack of training for his reason, the savage is 
impulsive. In him, the emotions are relatively stronger 
than in the civilized man. It has been said of him that 
*'He has the passions of a man and the reason of a. 
child ; " and that he '' has the incapacity of infancy, and 
the unpliancy of old age." 

Although the Malays and aboriginal North Americans 
are stolid in their manner, the lower races generally are 
often controlled by inconsiderate impulse. They are 
ready to give way to the passion of the moment. They 
can be readily influenced by any person who understands 
how to turn their attention to some minor prejudice, 
connected with the main question under consideration. 
They laugh and cry easily, and can suddenly turn from 
the hilarious to the lachrymose mood and back again, 
under the influence of suggestions that would have no» 
effect on the average civilized mind. The most sincere 
lamentations at a Polynesian funeral are sometimes inter- 
rupted by a little incident such as the turning of a 
bug to escape at the sight of another bug, and there will 
be a general outbreak of the heartiest laughter, which 
will suddenly stop, to be followed by unanimous howling 
of the most lugubrious tone. It is not discreditable to 
the Maori or Fijian warrior to shed copious tears about 



174 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

slight vexations; or to give way in the presence of 
strangers, to the most furious anger when he has stum- 
bled over a stone. The negroes, negritoes, and Polyne- 
sians are boisterously merry; they laugh immoderately 
at trifles^ and are always frolicking. The Kamtschat- 
kans are excitable and almost hysterical in temper;^® the 
Papuans are '"impetuous;" the Fuegians are *'loud and 
furious talkers;" the Andamanese are ''frightfully pas- 
sionate;" the Fijians are "extremely changeable in dis- 
position;" the common conversation of the Arabs resem- 
bles a continual quarrel; and angry disputes ending in 
violence are common among the Bushmen." 

Many tribes are wonderfully dull in their arithmetical 
conceptions. Of the Damaras, we are told that if one 
has several sheep to sell he will not take a round sum. 
for the lot, but must be paid for each animal separately. 
Any other method of procedure confuses him and leaves 
him in doubt whether he has not been cheated. Thus when 
he has two sheep for sale and his price is two plugs of 
tobacco for one, he cannot comprehend that four plugs 
will pay for two. He insists on receiving payment for 
one, which he delivers,' and then he is ready to accept 
the other two plugs -for the other sheep. 

In a similar manner the Redman sells his furs. At the 
close of the hunting season he takes his bundle of pelts 
to the trading-post, but he does not sell the whole lot at 
one bargain. Keeping his bundle in his tent he there 
unties it and takes one pelt at a time to the white trader 
and' gets his pay for it, before exhibiting another. His 
main motive for this method of procedure is his distrust 
of his powers of keeping a complicated account either in 
his head, or by any system of marks. An Eskimo, when 
asked how many children he had, tried unsuccessfully to 



SEC. S6, PREPONDERANT PRESENT. 1/5 



12 



count them on his fingers, and then asked his wife. 
Savages generally do not know their ages. The Green- 
landers keep count of the years till about twenty, but not 
afterwards. In Western Africa it is considered impious 
to number the years.^^ 

Sec. S6. Preponderant Present. — Savages think much 
of to-day and little of to-morrow. They have a scanty 
regard for the remote future. They are the children of 
the moment. They want immediate gratification. Of 
the Brazilian Indian we are told that ''bethinks of noth- 
ing except the matters that immediately concern his 
daily material wants ; " ^ and of the East African that 
his mind '' will not, apparently cannot, escape from the 
circle of sense, nor will it occupy itself with aught but 
the present." ^ The Bedouin "judges of things as he sees 
them present before him, not in their causes and conse- 
quences." ^ Crantz tells us that the Greenlanders give 
no thought to anything except the occupations necessary 
to their existence.* Baker observed that the Nyanza 
negroes had little care for anything beyond the gratifica- 
tion of their physical wants.^ Fritsch calls the Bushman 
*' the unhappy child of the moment." ^ The low sav- 
age's disregard of the future is a prominent feature of his 
mental condition, and a necessary result of his mode of 
life. He has no facilities for accumulating property, nor 
any mode of protecting it after accumulation. There are 
regions in both Americas, in Australia and Africa where 
the aborigines seldom have a supply of food sufficient for 
a day in advance. He who obtains a supply is required 
by public opinion, to divide with his neighbors. It is 
accumulation that gives importance to the future, and 
stimulates man to weigh the relative values of the grati- 
fications of to-day and to-morrow. Such calculation 



I/O A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

gives to civilized communities a thoughtful seriousness 
very different from the childlike playfulness of savages. 
The remark has been made that after the aborigines of 
South Africa have lived for a time in the service of white 
masters, and have learned the advantages of preparing 
for the future, they lose their previous jovial manner, 
which had been the outgrowth of their early blindness 
and indifference to all save immediate results.'^ 

Sec. ^y. Early Maturity. — In many tribes the chil- 
dren, and especially the boys, when eight and ten years 
old, must begin to hunt berries, roots, seeds, and small 
birds and quadrupeds, for portion of their food ; and it is 
expected that before fifteen they shall acquire much ex- 
pertness in catching and killing small game. By this 
practice, and perhaps also by a peculiarity of their nature, 
they are relatively more mature than civilized children of 
the same age, and their observant faculties are specially 
acute. Before they are old enough to walk, Australian 
children are taught to dig for worms which they eat.^ 
In the basin of the Gazelle River, Africa, boys eight years 
of age often wander away from home because they can 
supply themselves with food.^ 

As Spencer says, " The primitive intellect is relatively 
simple, develops more rapidly and earlier reaches its 
limit " than that of the civilized man.^ The children are 
more precocious mentally and physically. The Equa- 
torial African children are, according to Winwood Reade, 
" absurdly precocious ;"* of the West African, we are told 
that they are remarkably sharp before puberty, and of 
the Australian, that their mental vigor begins to decline 
when they have reached the age of twenty.^ 

Sec. %%. Jollity. — When in company, savages gener- 
ally are noisy chatterers, fond of gossip, ready to find 



SEC. SS. JOLLITY. 177 

amusement In any trifle, and easily diverted from one 
feeling or train of ideas to another entirely different. 
They are highly excitable ; they talk about trifles with 
a vehemence of manner that would not be called out 
among civilized people unless the subject were one of 
great importance. They shout with amusement in the 
course of their ordinary conversation, and when seen 
from a little distance, they seem to be the happiest of 
mankind ; but the enlightened spectator who approaches 
and listens to their talk, wonders at its insipidity. 

Of the Polynesians, Gerland tells us that " the general 
cheerfulness and jollity, the wish to please and to amuse 
one another, were general characteristics which attracted 
the most attention among the early European voyagers. 
While in company, they were always engaged in lively 
conversation. They expressed their feelings with so 
much animation ; they seemed so innocent and amiable ; 
they were so cordial, so sincere, so anxious to anticipate 
the wishes and thoughts of their companions, that the 
strangers were dazzled, and unable to see the weak side 
of their hosts. Among themselves, in times of peace, 
they were friendly ; and their rare disputes were easily 
arranged. Their jovial animation was caused not by 
superior purity and harmony of the moral sentiments, 
but by an excitable disposition and an openness to new 
impressions. They were also susceptible to frequent at- 
tacks of melancholy ; and their active imagination sur- 
rounded them with terrors, and even killed them when 
they were told that they had broken a taboo, or had 
been cursed by a noted sorcerer. Their feelings and 
purposes changed suddenly from one extreme to the 
other. Light-hearted joy was succeeded almost instantly 
by gloomy despair, extravagant hopefulness by torturing 
12 



1/8 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

fear, the warmest attachment by the bitterest aversion, 
and the meanest oarsimony by the most senseless ex- 
travagance."^ 

The savage deHghts in a racket. A noisy toy is sure 
to please him. He wants rattles and fire-crackers. A 
North American Indian amused himself for an hour 
by striking matches and watching them ignite and burn 
out. In Polynesia, men and women play with dolls and 
toys made for civilized children of eight or ten years.^ 
Writing of the Marquesans of Typee, Melville says, ^* I 
was more and more struck with the light-hearted joyous- 
ness that everywhere prevailed. The minds of these 
simple savages, unoccupied by matters of graver moment, 
were capable of deriving the utmost delight from circum- 
stances which would have passed unnoticed in more 
intelligent communities. All their enjoyment indeed 
seemed to be made up of the little trifling incidents of 
the passing hour. What community, for instance, of 
refined and intellectual mortals would derive the least 
satisfaction from shooting popguns? The mere supposi- 
tion of such a thing would excite their indignation, and 
yet the whole population of Typee [a valley in the island 
of Nukahiva] did little else for ten days [after Melville 
showed them how to make the plaything] but occupy 
themselves with that childish amusement, fairly scream- 
ing too, with the delight it afforded them."^ 

Sec. 89. Politeness. — Among savages, the Polynesians, 
are the most attentive to the forms of social intercourse, 
and, partly for that reason, charmed the early European 
navigators in the Pacific. The Tongans and Samoans are 
specially noted for ** grace and dignity of deportment ; " ^ 
on the other hand, the North American savages are dis- 
tinguished for their stolidity of manner, and apparent 



SEC. 90. SALUTATIONS. 1/9 

lack of sentiment in their social relations. They meet 
and part without demonstration of feeling, and this even 
when the separation is likely to be for months, or when 
a number of warriors are about to start on a highly dan- 
_gerous expedition.^ 

Savages generally, and especially those of North 
America, seem to derive little pleasure from the matri- 
monial and parental relations.^ There is no show of 
tenderness between husband and wife; and relatively 
little between parent and child.* Maternal affection of 
course exists, but many influences tend to weaken it 
towards the boy after he has reached the age often ; and 
usually the children act as if they had little regard for 
the mother. It Is worthy of note however that the most 
sentimental of all oaths Is that of the stupid Damara, 
*' By the tears of my mother." ^ The Mandlngo says 
^' Strike me, but do not speak 111 of my mother." 

The Maoris have a custom called " tangi " (g hard) 
Ti^hlch requires Intimate friends, when meeting after a 
long separation, to begin with lamentation and weeping, 
as if grieving over the relatives lost or the sufferings 
endured since they previously met. Then, by mutual 
consent, they suddenly turn to a merry mood and so 
continue until perhaps some misfortune is mentioned 
when they again have a lachrymose fit. A similar cus- 
tom exists in Greenland and In Florida.^ 

Sec. 90. Salutations. — In many tribes, the subject 
kisses the hand of the chief, when admitted to his pres- 
ence ; in others, not being allowed to come near enough 
for that, he must kiss his own hand. The latter practice 
was common in ancient Rome, and suggested the word 
" adorare," to adore.^ Where equals sought to kiss the 
liands of each other, and each refused to let the other 



l80 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

have his way, they would grasp and shake hands as a 
compromise. In welcoming a visitor, the Bafiote stretches; 
out his arms and claps his hands together repeatedly ; ^ 
the Javan closes his hands and raises them to his fore- 
head;^ the Veddah bows and touches his forehead with 
his right hand.^ 

When addressing a chief, the common Congoese kneels, 
turns his face half aside, stretches out his arms as if in 
supplication and, at the end of every sentence, strikes his 
hands together.^ When approaching his ruler, the Daho- 
man crawls on hands and knees, as does the Siamese. 
The Batokas, Balondos, Kargue's and Watusis salute 
superiors by lying down on their backs and rolling from, 
side to side, as a little dog does before a big one. Thus 
the idea of unconditional submission is conveyed to the 
savage as it is to the brute mind.® In Tongataboo and 
in Fundah, the common man meeting a chief lies dowm 
and puts the great ma'n's foot on his neck.^ In Tonga,, 
he merely kneels or stoops and with his hand touches 
the sole of the chiefs foot. When speaking to his chief 
the Hawaiian, the Khond, the Malagasy, the Chibcha,^ 
and the Borghoo lie flat on the ground. The Polyne- 
sians and the Malays generally crouch down when address- 
ing their superiors.^ When equals meet in Ashantee^ 
they squat down and rub their hands over the ground,, 
as if in preparation for prostrating themselves.^® 

In Congo, the warrior who meets his chief, kneels 
and kisses the earth, while his superior sprinkles dust 
over the head and arms of his kneeling subject. Irt 
Balondo and on the lower Niger, the common man kneels 
and rubs dust on his arms and chest, while the chief 
makes motions as if he were rubbing dust on his own. 
arms and chest. 



SEC. 90. SALUTATIONS. I8I 

He who throws dust over himself, humiliates himself 
and relatively exalts the person before whom he does it ; 
and in many countries honor is paid in that way or in 
motions suggestive of it. The Turkish army officers, at 
a military review, go through the motions of throwing 
dust on their heads before the commanding general ; ^^ as 
Joshua and the elders of Israel " put dust on their heads " 
before the ark.^"^ In Wasua, the inferior meeting a supe- 
tior, rubs a ball of clay first on one arm and then on the 
other. 

The inferior, meeting his superior in Fiji, steps out of 
the way and squats down with his back to the path, thus 
indicating submissiveness. ^^ On the Isthmus of Panama, 
the speaker turns his back to the person spoken to.^* In 
Polynesia, the inferior must never get on a higher level 
than his chief, nor let his shadow fall on him. As any 
covering might conceal a weapon, the inferior must 
appear naked before his superior in Polynesia and Africa.^^ 

As a mode of salutation and an expression of affection, 
the kiss is unknown to the aboriginal Americans,^* Afri- 
cans," Polynesians, Melanesians, Malays and Eskimos,^^as 
it is to the Chinese and Japanese.^^ Instead of kissing 
his mistress, the Polynesian or Malay puts his nose at 
the side of hers and rubs it or smells her cheek. This 
process has been called the Malay kiss. In the Philippine 
Islands, New Caledonia and parts of Southeastern Asia, 
lovers exchange scarfs or handkerchiefs so that each has 
the perfume of the beloved.^" On Brumer's Island and 
in parts of New Guinea, friends at meeting salute by 
pinching each other's noses, and scratching each other on 
the body.'' 

In the imagination of many tribes, one of the greatest 
dangers of human life is that some of a man's rubbish, 



1 82 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

such as spittle, a clipping of hair or nails, a remnant of 
his food, or a piece of his clothing, may fall into the 
hands of a sorcerer, who, with its aid, can bewitch him 
into disease or death. To give one's rubbish to another 
is a mark of the greatest confidence and submission ; and 
this idea is perhaps the basis of the custom of saluting^ 
a person by spitting on his hand or in his face, as in the 
upper part of the Nile valley^^ and among the Payaguas,^^ 
or by spitting in one's own hand and rubbing it over the 
friend's face, as among the Eskimos.^* In some Moslem 
tribes of Northern Africa, the chief honors his courtiers 
by squirting his saliva over them,^^ and the Berber, whea 
he wishes to show special honor or affection to a child, 
spits in its face.^^ In Ashiro, the guest, when taking" 
leave, spits some chewed sugar cane into the hand of his 
host.^^ In Alabama and in the Andaman Islands, friends, 
when meeting, salute by blowing into each other's faces,, 
perhaps a remnant of the spitting process. 

In many tribes the mode of address varies greatly ac- 
cording to the relative ranks of the persons meetingJ 
The Samoans use the reverential plural to superiors, and 
give the title '* chief" to equals. The aboriginal Javan 

has a common, a classic and a court dialect or set of 

i 
phrases, the first being used to inferiors and the last ta 

superiors. The Hottentots address one another^ as; 
" brother." 

Sec. 91. Education. — In the North American tribes^ 
infants are taught to weep in silence, and the white vis- 
itor is surprised and amused by seeing a child shedding" 
tears freely and expressing intense misery with its facial 
muscles, while not making the least sound. The process 
of instruction in silent weeping is simple. The child's 
*' mouth is covered with the palm of the hand while its 



SEC. 91. EDUCATION. 1 83 

nose is grasped between the thumb and forefinger, until 
the little one is nearly suffocated. It is then let go, to be 
seized and smothered again at its first attempt to cry. 
The baby very soon learns that silence is its best policy." ^ 

Savage children are not trained at home in table man- 
ners, refinement of speech, kindness, honesty and mag- 
nanimity; and they get no systematic moral training 
elsewhere. In the conduct and language of the adults 
whom they observe, violence, treachery and falsehood, 
are honored; while mildness and re-gard for the feel- 
ings of others are treated with contempt. Their plays 
include robbery, battle and cruelty. In tribes which 
steal wives, the little boys club and drag away the little 
girls. Live animals are given by the parents to the chil- 
dren to be tortured. There is no religion that teaches 
virtue ; there is no conception of virtue save getting all 
you can for yourself and your family, clan or tribe, and 
doing all possible injury to others. 

When six or eight years old, the boy is emancipated 
from the control of the mother, who after that time must 
not strike or threaten him, nor in any way check his 
insolence or violence, which are applauded by the father 
and uncles, as evidences of spirit and courage. 

In regard to the habits of the animals on which the 
savages depend for food, the boys receive thorough 
instruction, not by direct teaching, but by overhearing 
the common conversation among the men. The children 
have games* in which they imitate the cries and calls of 
all the quadrupeds and birds known to them, until they 
acquire such skill that they can deceive the animals. 

In savagism as in civilization, little girls are brought 
up to be the companions and assistants of their mothers 
and, even where more prized than boys on account of 



184 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

their pecuniary value, are always treated as inferior 
beings, destined to render servile duty to the other sex. 
They inherit from nature modest impulses, confirmed by 
the example of their mothers and other women, but they 
are accustomed from their earliest years to hearing the 
coarsest speech from the men, and to seeing almost 
daily many actions that would be considered most gross 
offenses, if done publicly, in any civilized community. 

Sec. 92. Morality. — In the lower culturesteps high 
morality is neither inculcated by the priests nor attrib- 
uted to the spirits or gods. To the savage, divine good- 
ness means nothing save favoritism to a person. His 
god will aid him to rob and assassinate an unoffending 
stranger, and will protect him from punishment for the 
most unjustifiable and outrageous crime. A Bushman 
said it was good for him to steal another man's wife, and 
bad for another man to steal his wife.^ A tribe of the 
Chibchas^ and some savages of Hindostan^ consider no 
offering more acceptable to their divinity than a share 
of the spoil obtained in a murderous raid. A young 
Abyssinian wh^ had not risen above savage ideas com- 
plained that '' God must be angry with me for I have only 
twice attempted to rob and on both occasions have I 
been punished.'"' The Tahitian religion, which in general 
character is the most advanced of all savage religions, 
has no moral teaching.^ No savage tribe has a definite 
belief in future reward for virtue or punishrruent for vice. 

The ethical standard cannot be high among men who 
limit their idea of mutual fidelity to their own tribe, clan 
or village ; who treat all persons outside of that limit as 
proper subjects for robbery and murder ; who regard the 
possession of a scalp of any person outside of their tribe 
as a title to the highest honor; who despise the man 



SEC. 92. MORALITY. 1 85 

who has never killed a human being; who delight 
in torturing their captives ; whose gods are detestable 
demons ; and who expect to continue through a long 
future, the brutal ferocity they have exercised in this life. 
It is a great mistake to imagine that as *' the primitive 
man had few duties, he was relatively pure."^ The more 
primitive the man the more impure ; the less he knew of 
his duties to his fellows, the less he cared for them. 
Purity consists not in brutish ignorance of obligation to 
our fellow men, but in knowledge of it and careful regard 
for it. 

While most of the low savages are bloodthirsty, vio- 
lent, cruel, regardless of the rights of aliens, and tyran- 
nical to their women, there are exceptions. The Eski- 
mos generally know nothing of war, and usually live 
peacefully and happily among themselves. Of the Hill 
Dyaks, Low says, ''Crime is so rare among them that its 
punishments are known only from tradition ; and they 
live at present [1848] in a state of happiness and con- 
tentment which perhaps is at this time enjoyed in so high 
a degree by no other people upon earth."^ 

Schomberg, speaking of the aborigines of British Guiana, 
says that " though civilized men possess infinitely higher 
blessings, they lack the pure morality of these savages 
who have never come into contact with Europeans, and 
have not learned the vices of civilization. At home 
among these people, I have seen peace, quiet, and hap- 
piness, the simple love of husband for wife, of parents 
for children, of children for parents, sincere friendship, 
boundless gratitude, expressed not in empty words, but 
cherished in true hearts. They need no lesson from civi- 
lization in virtue ; they live in it but do not speak of it. 
Their word is their deed ; their promise is their conduct 



>>8 



1 86 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Sec. 93. Amusements. — Music and dancing are found 
everywhere and in many tribes are the chief amusements. 
Savages are averse to much exertion either physical or 
mental. Such games as ball, wrestling, boxing, bowling, 
and racing afoot are not general among them.^ They 
have no cards, checkers, chess or backgammon. We 
do not derive from savages any amusement requiring 
much intellectual exertion, nor, so far as known, have 
inherited from them any exercise requiring much skill, 
such as cricket, baseball or boxing. The Araucans^ and 
Redmen east of the Mississippi^ have games of ball, and 
the Redmen west of the Mississippi have a game played 
with a hoop and spears. The Maoris have kites, skip 
ropes, swings, whip tops and cats' cradle. Among the 
tropical Polynesians we find wrestling matches, cock- 
fights, and surf bathing. Of the last, Moerenhout says, 
" Among the exercises of strength and skill, practiced 
by mankind in various countries, I know none more 
exciting or astonishing at first view than this. Usually 
they have a board three or four feet long with which 
they swim out beyond the line of the breaking surf, and 
then watching the waves, and diving under the smaller 
ones, they wait for one of the largest. Upon the sum- 
mit of this one, announced to them by the shout of their 
friends on the beach, they come towards the land and it 
looks to the spectator as if they must be crushed, but 
before the wave breaks, they turn and go out to sea 
again, while the surf tumbles over and dashes with a 
great roar on the sand."* 

The favorite swing of the Dyaks is a single cord with 
a loop at the lower end, supported by three long bamboo 
poles fastened together at the top. A strong man puts 
one foot in the loop ; another man clings to him, and 



SEC. 94. POETRY, ETC. 1 8/ 

others catch hold wherever they can, until there are a 
dozen or more ; many of them uncomfortable with their 
burdens, and struggling to get rid of them, amidst gen- 
eral laughter and shouting of participants and bystanders.^ 
The swing of the Hervey Islanders, similar in pattern, is 
attached to a tall leaning cocoa tree, and has a similar 
cluster of persons for its load.® 

The dance, often of a religious character, has a prom- 
inent place among the Indians of North America. The 
steps are stamps and rude hops ; the common figure, 
movement in a circle. Music is furnished by a drum, 
rattle or monotonous chant. In some tribes men and 
women participate, in others men only. Every impor- 
tant expedition whether for war or the chase is preceded, 
and every successful one is celebrated, by a dance. 
Stupid as the Indian dance seems to the civilized 
observer, yet if one Redman starts with his stamping 
and bark-like chant, the rhythmical movement seems to 
impress the villagers greatly and soon most of them are 
at his heels imitating his example.^ Many of the sav- 
age dances are obscene in their character. 

Savages are fond of gambling and risk much of their 
little property in betting on games of chance,® on cock- 
fights,^ and where they have them, on games of ball and 
hoop. Among the Australians the favorite game for 
little boys is stealing wives ; among the Redmen it is 
scalping enemies ; in the Eskimo region, it is building 
snow huts ; in Guiana, it is leading a large spider about 
by a string. 

Sec. 94. Poetry, etc. — Savage tribes generally have few 
interesting legends, few notable traditions of tribal achieve- 
ments, and no poems or samples of oratory transmitted 
from generation to generation. Indeed there are many 



1 88 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

tribes without any of these intellectual productions, so 
far as is known. In poetry, perhaps New Zealand sur- 
passes any other savage region. Waitz says, *' Although 
Tude and coarse in form, the mythical songs of the 
Maoris, given by Grey are, in substance, not inferior 
to those of ancient Greece or mediaeval Germany. . . . 
In the songs of New Zealand, blood revenge in its fiercest 
form and even cannibalism appear, but on the other 
liand, we observe the warmest family affection. To find 
a beloved sister, mother or wife, the hero travels over the 
Icnown world, goes down into hell and climbs up to 
lieaven. Fancy, wit and descriptive talent are all found 
iiere.'" 

Poetry occupies a prominent place in the life of the 
Tahitians and Hawaiians. Among them a song accom- 
panies every important concerted movement, whether 
playing, dancing, rowing, marching, building a house, 
launching a boat, planting a field, carrying a load, cutting 
down a tree, attacking an enemy, or worshiping a god. 
They welcome the birth of a child and they accompany 
the burial of a man with a song. Their nursery rhymes 
are numerous, and their favorite poets are treated with 
much honor. 

The Greenlanders " decide their quarrels by a match 
of singing and dancing which they call the singing com- 
bat. If a Greenlander thinks himself aggrieved by another, 
lie discovers no symptom of revengeful design, anger or 
vexation ; but he composes a satirical poem which he re- 
cites with singing and dancing in the presence of his 
family, till they know it by rote. He then in the face of 
the whole country, challenges his antagonist to a satiri- 
cal duel. . . . He who has the last word wins the 
trial. . . . It serves a higher purpose than a mere 



SEC. 95. MUSIC. 189 

diversion. Nothing so effectually restrains a Greenlander 
from vice as the dread of a public disgrace."^ 

Savage eloquence reached its highest development 
among the Iroquois, the Algonkins, the Cherokees, the 
Tongans, the Kaffirs, the Maoris and the Samoans, all 
of whom were in the habit of discussing and deciding 
their most important public questions in assemblies of 
the warriors or councils of the nobles ; but of their ora- 
tions, delivered before they had been long in contact with, 
civilized men, no samples have been preserved.^ 

Proverbs containing wit and close observation of hu- 
man life are found in many savage tribes. Among those 
of the Tahitians are the following '.^ — 

Women and war are man's perils. 

At planting, fnends are few; at harvest, many. 

The reward of bravery in battle is uncertain ; that 

of toil in tillage is sure. 
The net conceals its spider and the heart its thought. 
The gift, with much love, is never small. 

Notches in sticks and knots in strings are used to aid 
the savage memory. Knotted cords for such purposes 
are familiar among the Araucans, Ostyaks, Sumatrans, 
Javans, Polynesians and the aborigines of New Britain. 
The payment of taxes was recorded in Hawaii on strings,^ 
and in New Britain count was kept on them of days 
passed, of cocoa-nuts delivered and of other statistics.. 
The Zuni Indians have a tradition that their ancesters 
had knotted-cord records. The wampum of the tribes 
east of the Mississippi, consisting of bead belts, was used 
to remind their possessors of treaties and traditions. 
Rude pictures are drawn by many tribes to convey in- 
formation, and some of them can be easily understood. 

Sec. 95. Music. — Every savage tribe has its music, but 



190 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

none has many striking airs, nor one air that commands 
the adniiration of enHghtened nations. All their tunes 
are in the minor key, which does not give scope to varied 
and powerful effects. In many of their airs, the rhythm 
is a large part and though not strongly accentuated, it 
has a decided influence on the savage temperaments at 
times. The range of tones is small ; in Samoa and Tahiti 
only three notes, from e to g} Referring to the Poly- 
nesians, P'oster says, *' the whole music both vocal and 
instrumental, consists of three or four notes, which are 
between half and quarter notes, being neither whole nor 
semitones. The effect of these notes, without variety or 
order, is only a kind of drowsy hum."^ 

Writing of the music of the Bushmen, Dr. Lichten- 
stein says, " We were by degrees so accustomed to the 
monotonous sound that our sleep was never disturbed 
by it ; nay, it rather lulled us to sleep. Heard at a dis- 
tance, there was nothing unpleasant, but something plaint- 
ive and soothing. Although no more than six tones 
can be produced from it, which do not, besides, belong 
to our gamut, but form intervals quite foreign to it, yet 
the kind of vocal sound of these tones, the uncommon 
nature of the rhythm, and even the oddness, I may say 
wildness, of the harmony, give to this music a charm pe- 
culiar to itself"^ 

Harriet Martineau remarks that " the music of nature 
is all in the minor key — the melodies of the winds, the 
sea, the waterfall, the song of birds, and the echoes of 
the bleating flocks among the hills; and the human song 
[in low culture], seems to follow their lead.'"' Dr. 
Crotch, speaking of the musical instruments of the 
aboriginal Javans, says they have the " same kind of scale 
as that produced by the black keys of the pianoforte^ in 



SEC. 95. MUSIC. 191 

which scale so many of the Scotch and Irish, all the 
Chinese and some of the East Indian and North Ameri- 
can airs of the greatest antiquity were produced."^ He 
adds that the irregularity of the rhythm and the reitera- 
tion of the same note are characteristic of oriental music, 
and the same remark applies to savage music. Burton 
says that ** the noisiness of the major cleff " confuses the 
barbarian ; and it is a well known fact that Chinamen 
and savages after having been accustomed for generations 
to hear, at least occasionally, the music of the Euraryans, 
continue to prefer their own airs in the minor key. They 
often listen with indifference to our orchestras and some- 
times with positive dislike, and even put their fingers in 
their ears to keep out the unpleasant sounds. On the 
other hand, we regard the Chinese orchestral and choral 
music as a most ludicrous and ear-offending combination 
of discordant squeak, rattle, squall and bang. 

Falsetto is prominent in the singing of most savages, 
as it is in China, Japan, Russia, Arabia, and also among 
** uneducated singers in the rural districts of civilized 
countries."^ It implies defective perception of harmony, 
the higher forms of which, in the combination of three 
tones to make a full chord, are unknown in the lower 
grades of culture. Most tribes perform but one part at 
a time, but some, including Hawaiians, Tahitians and 
Tongans,^ could sing two parts together. 

The most widely known musical instrument is the 
drum. As a hollow cylinder of wood or bamboo, with 
or without a covering of rawhide, it is familiar to the 
Australians, Polynesians, Africans, Asiatics, Eskimos, 
and Americans of both continents. Its monotonous 
sound is a suitable accompaniment for the savage chant ; 
and its loud notes serve in time of war to warn and to 



192 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

excite warriors far and near. The Balondo drum has a 
hole in the side over which a piece of spiderweb is 
stretched as a resounder.^ 

Perhaps the name of gong would be more appropriate for 
a canoe-shaped hollow log made by the Maoris. When 
suspended and beaten hard, its noise can be heard in 
still weather at a distance of twenty miles. Rattles of 
bladder or gourd containing pebbles or nuts supply 
much of the racket which many tribes enjoy. The ma- 
remba, a collection of resonant sticks of various sizes, 
giving out different notes under the hammer, was used in 
many African tribes before it was copied, improved and 
made familiar in Europe as the xylophone. 

The harp of the Kaffirs consists of a bow with a sin- 
gle string, passing through a ring, in which the performer 
inserts his forefinger of the hand used for holding the 
bow ; and by the movement of this finger he can increase 
or relax the tension, and thus regulate the note to be pro- 
duced by a blow on the chord from a stick in the other 
hand. The Bushman's harp has a single string stretched 
on a bow. To one end of the string is attached a flat- 
tened piece of the barrel of a large quill four inches 
long. He holds the bow in his left hand, puts his left 
forefinger in his left nostril, and his righfe forefinger in his 
right ear, and by sucking or blowing on the quill, he 
causes it to vibrate and make sounds musical to him.® 

Various instruments resembling the guitar in principle 
are used in most of the countries producing the bamboo, 
the outer rind of which is cut into strips from one point 
to another, raised by wedges or bridges, and played with 
the fingers like a harp or rubbed with a cord stretched 
over a bow. The Gonds have a rude guitar made with 
a gourd in which is stuck a neck of bamboo.^® 



SEC. 96. MEDICINE, ETC. I93 

Of wind instruments, the most common is the trumpet 
made of conch shell, which is much used on the northern 
shore of the Gulf of Mexico and in Polynesia. The Tahi- 
tians increase the sound by boring a hole in the side and 
inserting a bamboo tube, three feet long, through which 
they blow. The nose flageolet is found in P9lynesia as 
in ancient Greece, the left nostril being used for blowing 
while the right one is closed with the right thumb." 
In Nine the player applies a flageolet to each nostril, 
blowing both at the same time.^^ The Pandean pipes are 
known to many Melanesian and other savage tribes.^^ 

Sec. 96. Medicme, etc. — Besides sacerdotal hocus-pocus 
(based on the theory of demoniacal possession), which 
is general among savages, as a cure of disease, many 
tribes have therapeutical remedies.^ In North America 
and Tahiti, the steam-bath is a general remedy, exit from 
the bath being followed immediately by a plunge into a 
stream or pond. This treatment gives relief ia light 
rheumatisms and some other mild complaints, but in 
smallpox and measles it is almost invariably followed by 
a fatal result. Vegetable purges and emetics are fre- 
quently administered as remedies for disease, or as 
means of expelling demons that cause disease, by the 
Polynesians and Redmen ; and in some American tribes, 
emetics are taken to prepare warriors for ecclesiastical 
festivals^ or for exceptional exertion. The Lapwai tribe 
in Idaho has periodical treatments with emetics to over- 
come the spirit of fatigue. Wilkes tells us that a man 
who had just gone through such a treatment ran one 
hundred miles in sixteen hours. ^ 

Smallpox was introduced into America and measles 
into Polynesia by Europeans. Various forms of catarrh 
were unknown or rare in many tropical islands of the 
13 



194 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Pacific before the missionaries induced their converts to 
wear clothing. Ague made its appearance among the 
Chinooks after the white men began to settle in Oregon.* 
Syphilis was known in New Zealand and Australia and 
smallpox in Australia before the time of Cook, but per- 
haps not before the visits of earlier European navigators.^ 
Hernia humoralis is common among the Makonde.^ 
The Javanese have a peculiar hysterical affection called 
lata.' In consequence of the custom of eating raw rneat, 
most of the Abyssinians, in portions of the population 
ninety-five out of a hundred, have taenia.^ 

Some savage tribes have considerable knowledge of 
surgery and others very little. The East Africans near 
the equator can neither reduce dislocations nor set 
broken bones ; ^ the Mandingoes can do both.^" Among 
the North American Indians and some Polynesians, 
broken bones are set with splints, cuts are sewed together 
and the external healing of suppurating wounds is care- 
fully prevented.^^ They also use bleeding, cupping, and 
cautery with heat. The Californians apply nettles, venom- 
ous ants, and burning heat to parts afflicted with 
rheumatism. The favorite remedies of the Damaras for 
that disease are cupping and tattooing. Their cup is a 
section of a cow's horn from which a man sucks out the 
air. The panacea of the Ashira negroes for leprosy, 
lumbago, and many other diseases, consists in scarifying 
the affected part, and rubbing the cuts with capsicum 
and lime juice.^^ The Andamanese use scarification for 
rheumatism. The Koosa negroes inoculate their chil- 
dren with smallpox, giving them the virus to eat in a 
grape,^^ having presumably learned this remedy from the 
Arabs. The success of the Solomon Islanders in treat- 
ing gunshot wounds with hot stones astonished Doctor 



SEC. 97. VOCABULARY. 1 95 

Guppy and led him to believe that the method should be 
tried in civilized hospitals." 

The Polynesians amputate limbs, and sear severed 
arteries with red-hot stone. They trepan skulls, and 
so-metimes after taking out some of the man's brain, put 
5ome pig's brain in to fill up the hole. No case of suc- 
cess in this operation is on record.^'' The prehistoric 
Europeans trepanned many infants, perhaps for convul- 
sions/^ and the subsequent growt h of the bone proves 
that the subject survived for many years. The trepan 
hole usually about an inch and a half square was made at 
some place convenient for cleaning the inside of the 
skull.^^ 

The kneading of the muscles is practiced in Polynesia,^® 
the basin of the Niger and the southern part of the Nile 
basin.^' It is found in the most common use and in the 
highest development in the Hawaiian group, where it is 
called lomilomi. For bruises, sprains, sleeplessness, sur- 
feits, and stiffness after severe exertion, it is the favorite 
remedy and is applied with much success. It is used 
for hygienic as well as for medical purposes. Its admin- 
istration at frequent intervals to most of the high chiefs 
and their sons, is presumably the main cause of their 
large size and great strength. In Tonga, the person suf- 
fering with insomnia is beaten with mild strokes until he 
falls asleep, and if he awakes before he has obtained the 
needed rest the beating is resumed.'^" 

Sec. 97. Vocabulary. — Articulate speech, the necessary 
product of human reason, is one of the greatest achieve- 
ments as well as one of the leading characteristics of 
mankind. Whether " language and thought are insepar- 
able,"^ or whether *' general ideas and words are insepar- 
able,"^ as Max MuUer says, or not, it Is certain that, with- 



196 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

out the aid of speech, man would ever have remained 
near the level of the brute. Soon after he appeared on 
the earth lie found gratification in listening to the sound 
of his own voice, and in trying its tones. Before taming; 
fire or making edge tools, we may presume that he imi- 
tated the cries of quadrupeds and birds, and uttered 
exclamations of pleasure, pain, surprise, alarm, warnings 
threat, defiance, friendship and affection. These ejacu- 
latory, and imitative calls' by adoption into common use,, 
with understood meanings, became words. They were 
monosyllables without parts of speech and without inflec- 
tion. The position in the sentence indicated whether the 
word was a subject, predicate or object ; whether a noun,, 
adjective or a verb/ In many cases the meaning was 
not clear until the words had been supplemented by a. 
gesture. There were no terms for general ideas or 
immaterial conceptions. The words were few. Some 
agricultural laborers of modern Europe do not use more 
than three hundred,^ and the Chinese have not more than: 
five hundred original root words.® The savage vocabu- 
laries though brief may be very full in some classes 
of terms. Thus Polynesians have many words to signify 
the cocoa-nut in different stages, as the Arabs have many 
for lion/ and the Icelanders many for various kinds of 
island. 

Many modern tribes have no general terms for the 
most common classes of objects. Thus the idea of plant,, 
tree, animal and quadruped, cannot be expressed in the 
tongue of the Coroados of Brazil. They have names 
for various species of tree but none for tree in generaL 
Neither can they convey the conception of distance^ 
height, color, tone, sex, multitude, degree, space, time^ 
feeling, consciousness, affection, gratitude or love by any 



SEC. 97. VOCABULARY. 1 9/ 

ojie word. Among the tribes, which have no abstract 
terms, are the Tahitians,^ Redmen/" Australians^^ and 
Tasmanians.^^ The Hos have no words expressive of 
tenderness ; the Tinnehs have no adjective meaning dear ; 
some Polynesians and some Redmen have no verb signi- 
fying to thank ; and the Algonkins have none meaning 
to love.^^ Many tribes are without such simple adjectives 
as warm, long and hard, and they express the idea by 
saying not cold, not short, or not soft, or they com- 
pare the object of which they are speaking with some- 
thing which is warm, long, or hard.^* In adjectives they 
lack comparatives, and they convey the idea that John is 
taller than James by saying *' John is tall and James is 
not tall." In some tribes there are no special words for 
I and you. The ideas of I and you are conveyed among 
the Greenlanders by *' here " and " there ; " among the 
Malays by '' servant " and " master ; " and in some tribes, 
hy loud and low tones, the loud meaning I, as nearest, 
and the low you, as farther away.^^ The Mandingoes 
liave no prepositions equivalent to our " on " and *' in ; " 
and they convey the idea that a thing is on the table, by 
saying the table is a neck to it; and that a thing is in 
the hut, by saying the hut is a belly to it.^® Similar 
rudimentary forms of speech are found in China, where 
the idea of distance is conveyed by ** far-near ; " of weight 
by " light-heavy ; " of conversation by " I-asking-thou- 
answering ; " and difference of opinion by " I-east-you- 
west ; " and virtue, loyalty, justice, temperance and respect 
for parents by similar combinations." 

In the languages of savages the words for immaterial 
conceptions are comparatively few, but as among civilized 
people, all '' are derived by metaphor from words express- 
ive of sensible ideas,"^^ or they are the words for sensi- 



198 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

ble ideas used also with another meaning. Thus the 
word for soul in one tribe is shadow ; in another, breath, 
and the same term may mean shadow, the soul of the 
living man, the dead spirit, and a god. The verb to sit, 
among the Kaffirs means also to dwell, to live and to 
continue ; bush means also a refuge ; to eat together 
means to be friends -^ and the idea, that he is proud, is 
conveyed by saying he eats himself The phrase " eat 
a person," in the sense of confiscate his property, is 
a survival of cannibalism ; and to smell a person, in the 
sense of accusing him of witchcraft, suggests the savage 
custom of discovering murderous sorcerers by the noses 
of priests.^^ 

The Puris, Botocudos, Bushmen, Tasmanians and some 
Australians have no numerals above two ; the Abipones 
and some Californians have none above three ; the 
Guaranis none above four ; ^^ the Veddahs none above 
five; the Greenlanders and Kamilaroi none above six; 
and the latter tribe have no simple numeral above three. 
For four they said " two-two ;" for five, " two-three ;"" 
for six " three-three." 

This poverty in numerals does not necessarily imply 
the inability to conceive higher numbers distinctly ; since 
by holding up both hands together five times in suc- 
cession, any number under fifty can be indicated with 
sufficient clearness, to satisfy the savage sense. Thus, 
though the Bechuanas have numerals, they rarely speak 
them, and some indeed do not know them. It is suffi- 
cient for their purposes to hold up their fingers for small 
numbers, and to say many for larger ones. Those tribes 
which have only two numerals, give the name of multi- 
tude to any number above two. 

The Coroados name their three numerals after the 



SEC. 98. SOUNDS AND SIGNS. I99 

joints of the fingers ; ^^ in the tongue of one tribe, the word 
for one means the forefinger ; that for two the middle 
finger ; three the third finger ; four the Httle finger ; five 
the hand ; ten two hands ; fifteen two hands and a foot ; 
twenty a man. In the Persian, Malay and Polynesian 
languages, the same word means hand and five ; in the 
Muysca tongue five means a hand, ten, two hands ; eleven, 
foot one ; twelve, foot two, and twenty means man.^^ 
There are many reasons for believing that men counted 
by scores or twenties before they learned to count by 
hundreds. The early English counted by scores as we 
find in the phrase threescore and ten ; and the French 
also, as evinced by their " quatre-vingts " or fourscore 
for eighty. The Arowaks count by scores ;^^ and the 
Hawaiians had presumably the same system of enumera- 
tion, if we may infer from the fact that they had special 
words for 400, 4,000, 40,000 and 400,000.^"^ 

In the Malay and Aztec tongues, one means literally 
one stone ; two means two stones ; and three, three 
stones. The Niues for one, two and three say one fruit, 
two fruits and three fruits, the Javans say one grain, two 
grains, three grains."^^ The Latin word calculation seems 
to have been derived from calculus, a stone, and we may 
presume that the early Romans used stones in counting. 

Sec. 98. Sounds and Signs. — In some languages, gen- 
eral terms are limited to special meanings by special or 
determinative sounds, such as the click, clack and cluck 
of the Hottentot. These sounds are made by drawing 
the tongue from the upper part of the mouth ; the click 
from the upper front teeth, the clack from the front of 
the palate, and the cluck from the middle or back of 
the palate. From a preceding click the word "Aap" 
receives the meaning of horse ; from a clack, river, and 



200 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

from a cluck, arrow. In some South African tribes, the 
clucks are attached to a large proportion of the words, 
and conversation sounds like the drawing of corks or 
the gobbling of turkeys. The Wasakima of East Africa 
begin every word with a t'hu or t'ha, as if spitting sharply 
at some offensive object. The speech of the Fuegians is 
a coarse guttural clucking.^ Some of the Indians of the 
northwestern coast of North America have numerous 
guttural sounds very difficult for the civilized tongue to 
master. 

Another indication of the several separate meanings of 
the same word is the intonation used by the Chinese, Siam- 
ese, Yorubans,^ Dahomans and Ashantees.^ The use of 
varying places in the gamut in the enunciation of words 
as qualifications of signification is especially adapted to 
monosyllabic tongues like those of the Chinese and 
Siamese.* 

In the Annamitic tongue, "ba" pronounced with a 
grave accent means a lady ; with a sharp accent, the fa- 
vorite of a prince ; with a semi-grave accent, something 
thrown away ; with a grave circumflex, a fruit after the 
juice has been squeezed out; with no accent, three; and 
with an ascending accent, a box on the ear. Thus the 
sentence " Ba ba ba ba " each word pronounced with a 
different accent may mean, " Three ladies gave a box on 
the ear to the favorite of a prince." A singing tone is 
common in the speech of Tonga, Huahine and several 
other Polynesian Islands,^ but is not used there to dis- 
tinguish the meaning of words. 

A notable feature of many savage tongues is the large 
proportion of words containing duplicated syllables, as 
in the English words papa, Tartar and Berber. Of such 
words there are three in a thousand in English ; seventy- 



SEC. 98.. SOUNDS AND SIGNS. 20I 

two on an average in four aboriginal American tongues ; 
seventy-three in each of six African ; ninety-six in five 
Melanesian ; and one hundred and sixty-nine in two 
Polynesian languages.^ 

Though savage tongues in some cases are remarkably 
guttural, as a general rule, they have brief alphabets. 
The Samoans have only fourteen letters ; the only con- 
sonants on the Tupuai group south of Tahiti, are those 
of m, n, ng, p, r, t, v and one guttural.'^ No Polynesian 
tongue has more than ten consonants ; many have fewer. 
There are twenty in English. The Australian tongues 
have eight. The Maoris have no b, d, f, g, j, 1, q, s, v, x, 
y, or z.^ S, sh, and z are lacking in the Polynesian 
tongues generally, and in pronouncing European words, 
they substituted k for s and sh. Missionary in their 
mouths became mikonary. The Hawaiians, like many 
other savages, and like some civilized children, cannot 
distinguish between k and t ; or between 1 and r. Kalo 
and taro are for them equivalents. The Iroquois had 
none of the labials — b, p, m, f, v, w, — and could speak 
distinctly with very little movement of the lips.^ Some 
of the tribes on the western coast of North America 
could pronounce p but not f, nor r ; and piway was 
their nearest approach to fire. The Fijians could not 
use b, d, or g, without putting m or n before it, as in 
Ngata, and Nduandua,^^ and a similar use of m and n 
before k, t d, p, b, g, and ch and some other consonants 
is found in portions of Africa. In Polynesia every syl- 
lable must end in a vowel, and two consonants must 
never come together, and the same rules apply with few 
exceptions in some portions of Africa." To the New 
Zealander, Bill becomes Biro ; William, Wiremu ; and 
Tom, Tommo ; and in Tahiti, Governor is Tavana. 



202 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Many tribes have vocabularies so scanty that they 
cannot converse without the help of gesticulations, and 
therefore cannot understand one another in the dark. 
Such are the Bushmen/"* Tasmanians/^ Veddahs/* Puris, 
Southern Brazilians/^ Coroados,Arrapahoes, Comanches/® 
Cape Palma negroes," Marawas,^^ Kroomen,^^ Adayahs,'^'* 
Marquesans, and Chinooks. The obscurity of unaided 
speech arises mainly from the fact that one word has a 
multitude of analogous meanings, and in conversation 
the speaker must specialize his signification by some vis- 
ible sign. Thus in Typee ''one word expresses the ideas 
of sleep, rest, reclining, sitting, leaning, and all other 
things anyways analogous thereto, the particular mean- 
ing being shown chiefly by a variety of gestures and the 
eloquent expression of the countenance."^^ The face is 
much used in the sign language of many tribes. Grim- 
aces are prominent in the conversation of the Veddahs f^ 
and the Tasmanians " help out their words with winks, 
nods, twists, and eyebrow liftings, as well as with rapid 
arm and finger movements."^' The people, accustomed 
to such pantomime, use it often in preference, even when 
their words would suffice to convey their ideas distinctly. 

They spare effort with speech more than with gest- 
ures. The savage of Southern Brazil, intending to con- 
vey the idea that he is about to go into the forest, speaks 
the words "wood go," and sticks out his lips in the di- 
rection which he intends to take.^* The West African 
chief says "do it," and by gestures indicates the act to 
be done and the person to do it.^^ In some tribes the 
speaker, who conveys the idea of number, does so by 
gesticulation, and the hearers speak the numerals so as 
to show that they have the correct figure.^^ The actions 
of a party of South Africans listening to a hunter telling 



SEC. 99. GRAMMAR. 20$ 

about a trip on which he saw many different kinds of 
large game, suggest a play to the European observer. 

The extensive use of gesticulation through many gen- 
erations has led to the adoption of a sign language, the 
main features of which are the same among the savages 
of America, Africa, and Malaysia, and the deaf mutes of 
civilized countries. This mode of communicating ideas, 
based on imitations, analogies, associations, and resem- 
blances, when once learned, is quickly understood and 
easily remembered. Its daily use checks the improve- 
ment of speech among the low savages, while the habits of 
reading and writing, and the consequent familiarity with 
ideas and delicate shades of meaning not susceptible of 
communication by signs, have contributed to the neglect 
of gesticulation in enlightened nations. The higher the 
education, the fewer the signs and the more explicit the 
words. ^^ 

Sec. 99. Grammar. — Of all tongues known to philol- 
ogists, the most rudimentary, in the form of its words 
and the construction of its sentences, is the Chinese. It 
has neither inflexion, parts of speech, nor syntax. The 
same word is noun, adjective, and verb, according to the 
place in which it is used. The ideas live, alive, and to 
live are expressed by the same term. "Jin" means man, 
and^'ngo" bad ; "jin ngo" means the man is bad; "ngo 
jin " means bad man.^ The languages of the aboriginal 
Americans, Africans, and Pacific Islanders, have been 
carefully studied in typical cases, and neither among 
them, nor among other peoples has any tongue so prim- 
itive in its features been found. In speech the Chinese 
are nearer than any other nation or tribe to the child- 
hood of humanity. 

Many low tribes have complex systems of inflexion. 



204 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Some have as many tenses as had the Latins. Ridley, 
who had been a missionary among the AustraUans, 
wrote thus of their tongue : " The inflexion of verbs and 
nouns, the arrangement of sentences, and the methods 
of imparting emphasis, indicate an accuracy of thought 
and a force of expression surpassing all that is com- 
monly supposed to be obtainable by a savage race.'"^ 
The Fijians, according to Miss Constance Gordon Gum- 
ming, have ** more words to express shades of meaning 
than any European language," No distinguished philol- 
ogist has given such praise to any savage tongue and it 
certainly could not be given truthfully to savage tongues 
generally. 

Sec. I go. Rapid Change. — Among non-tilling savages 
living in small and isolated groups, every group or vil- 
lage or valley has a distinct dialect. In portions of New 
Guinea, Western Africa,^ California, and Canada,'^ the 
traveler comes on a new tongue about once in ten 
miles. Not only are the languages very numerous, but 
they change much within a single generation. Mission- 
aries in Central America found that after a lapse of ten 
years, a vocabulary had to be rewritten.^ In the period 
of less than twenty years between the visits of Cook 
and Vancouver to Tahiti, the names of the numerals, 
two, four, five, six, and eight, had changed there,* and 
new words had been adopted for about fifty of the most 
common ideas.^ 

The savage fears to speak the name of his dead friend 
or of his chief, and since men are named after familiar 
natural objects, a tongue may be much modified by such 
influences in one generation. If a man called Owl dies, 
the word owl is dropped and mouse-catcher or some 
equivalent is adopted in its place. This custom is found 



SEC. lOI. INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. 20$ 

in Asia, Africa, America, Australia, and Polynesia.^ 
The Tahitians and Zulus not only abandon a word used 
as a sacred name, but a syllable in such a name.^ ** Po," 
meaning night, dropped out of the Tahitian language 
when Pomare became chief, and on the accession of 
Taimalelangi, whose name meant '' sea-and-sky," two of 
the most familiar nouns were abandoned. 

The suggestions of accident are potent causes of 
change. An act notable for wisdom or folly, bravery or 
cowardice, skill or awkwardness, is named after the per- 
son who did it. New words, introduced by children 
while playing, may prevail over small districts and for 
brief periods in advanced culture, but soon die out; in 
savagism, they hold their ground. Extensive political 
organization, popular assemblies, a sacred literature and, 
above all, a system of recording sounds, in extensive use, 
are great aids to permanence of language. 

Sec. ioi. Intellectual Development. — Morality begins 
in the affection of the mother for her child ; and the first 
known manifestation of its influence on the political or- 
ganization is the fidelity of the members of a little group 
to one another. It must be very low among the non- 
tilling tribes which are divided into small independent 
clusters, which pay high honor to the successful assassin 
and which have religions without the least ethical teach- 
ing. Among the tribes in the early stages of tillage, we 
find that the man cannot take his place among the war- 
riors until he has killed somebody ; that scalps and 
skulls are fashionable trophies; that gourmand cannibal- 
ism is widely prevalent; that the gods are liars, murder- 
ers, and cannibals ; and that the rewards of the future 
life are not for virtue but for military prowess. In the 
tribes with slaves, nobles, hereditary priests, and despotic 



206 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

chiefs, the moral ideas have advanced, not by their own 
strength, but they have been dragged along by the 
growth of other branches of culture. The enlargement 
of the political organization, the higher sense of alle- 
giance, the irhprovement in military dicipline, the accu- 
mulation of property, the change in the relations of women 
to men, and the demand for chaste conduct in wives 
and young women, — all these stimulated, broadened, 
and strengthened the popular morality. 

In language we find many traces of evolution. One 
tongue consists of monosyllables which have no inflexion 
and may be noun, verb or adjective as occasion may 
require. The list of syllables is limited to several hun- 
dred, but different intonations are used to give different 
significations. In some languages, one word has many 
meanings, and gestures are added to distinguish which is 
intended in any special case. Certain tribes are so poor 
in their vocabulary and their ideas that they have no 
word for any numeral above three. In the tongues of 
all peoples, civilized and barbarous as well as savage, the 
terms for abstract and general ideas are derived directly 
or indirectly from the names of things perceptible to 
sense. 



CHAPTER VL 
POLITY. 

Section 102. Headless Groups. — ^The lowest form of 
government, known to civilized observation, is the head- 
less group, — that is a small community, politically inde- 
pendent, without a chief entitled to office by inheritance 
or formal election/ The person who leads merely 
because of his superior energy, courage, or tact, does not 
deserve to be called a chief Such headless groups are 
most abundant in tribes organized on the basis of the 
feminine clan in non-tilling culture ; and they occupy a 
large part of Australia. They have no orderly councils ; 
and no punishment of crime save by retaliation. 

Migratory habits are unfavorable to government and 
chieftainship. The Abos of Hindostan say they are " like 
tigers; two cannot dwell in the same den." Usually not 
more than two or three of their huts are found in a 
group.^ The Mintras of Sumatra have a similar lack of 
political organization. The Fuegians, the Jungle Ved- 
dahs, the Cayaguas of South America,^ some Bushmen 
and some Nepaulese who are nomadic in their mode of 
life, some semi-settled Eskimos, and the settled Arafuras 
and land Dyaks of upper Sarawak, live in similar head- 
less groups. 

Sec. 103. Freedom. — The supposition that savages live 
in freedom is based on incorrect definition. It has been 

(207) 



208 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

asserted that freedom, that is poHtical freedom, is '' the 
power to act in obedience to desire; " that " government 
in its fundamental notion is the necessary foe of Hberty ; " 
that "man never can be free until he can abolish the 
restrictive and protective attributes of government," and 
that " the liberty to do wrong is as sacred as the liberty 
to do right.'" 

But writers, who use such language and accept such 
ideas, do not understand the conception of liberty 
accepted by the leading political philosophers of our 
time. The true freedom, the freedom which the world 
admires, towards which it is marching, which inspires 
the devotion of enlightened statesmen, is not anarchical ; 
it is not the privilege of doing wrong ; it is not the priv- 
ilege of violating the rights of others ; it is not the legal- 
ization of murder, torture, slavery, robbery and all other 
forms of injustice which selfish greed or passion may sug- 
gest. Itisthevery contrary of all these. It is a condition 
in which the law promises political equality to all citizens, 
and secures it to them by an upright and efficient admin- 
istration of the executive and judicial departments of 
the government against all encroachment. It is a condi- 
tion in which every citizen is permitted to do all things 
that do not conflict with the equal privilege and enjoy- 
ment of others, and in which every interference with these 
equal privileges and enjoyments is prevented. Like all 
other human institutions, political freedom exists only in 
a defective form. Though it will never become perfect, 
it will never cease to improve. Its higher developments 
are possible only under complex written law, and there- 
fore are never found among savages. Political progress 
begins with the anarchy of the non-tilling savage and 
advances steadily towards ideal and perfect liberty. 



SEC. 103. FREEDOM. 2O9 

The superficial observer, passing hastily through a 
community of the lowest savages, such as Bushmen, Tas- 
manians, Australians or Lower Californians, and seeing 
that they have no clothing, no horses, no tilled fields, no 
domestic animal save perhaps the dog, no stock of food 
sufficient to last a month or even a week in advance, no 
chiefs empowered to issue commands or to collect tribute, 
might imagine that such people if not free were at least 
equal. But a careful examination will show that except 
in their poverty, great inequality prevails among them. 
As between the two sexes, the men have all the power. 
The women are slaves rather than wives, and are treated 
with general and severe cruelty. They are not permitted 
to eat the best food, nor to associate with their masters 
on terms of social equality ; and may be beaten or slain 
without giving any person the right to interfere or com- 
plain. As between the men, the relation is not much 
better. The stronger and more warlike clans are con- 
tinually encroaching upon the weaker, and massacre is 
their delight. Within the clans, the women — the chief 
kind of property — are divided very unequally. Lang, 
after a long acquaintance with the aboriginal Australians, 
wrote that ** instead of enjoying perfect personal freedom, 
as it would at first appear, they are governed by a code 
of rules and a set of customs which form one of the 
most cruel tyrannies that has ever perhaps existed on the 
face of the earth, subjecting not only the will, but the 
life and property, of the weak to the dominion of the 
strong. The whole tendency of the system is to give 
everything to the strong and old, to the prejudice of the 
weak and young, and more particularly to the detriment 
of the women. They have rules by which the best food, 
the best pieces, the best animals, etc., are prohibited to 
14 



2IO A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

the women and young men, and reserved for the old 
men. The women are generally appropriated to the old 
and powerful, some of whom possess from four to seven; 
while wives are altogether denied to young men, unless 
they have sisters to give in exchange and are strong and 
courageous enough to prevent their sisters from being 
taken without exchange."^ 

Sec. 104. Unstable Headship. — The headless stage of 
polity is succeeded by that of unstable headship in which 
there are chiefs with insecure titles or powers so scanty 
that they cannot issue orders, and can at most offer sug- 
gestions or make requests. Many tribes have no chief 
save in time of war, and then his authority is to lead, not 
to command, and is limited exclusively to military affairs. 
He is expected to invite warriors to follow him in his 
military expeditions, but he has no right to complain if 
they stay at home or follow some other person. The 
unstable chieftianship has no revenue. 

The tribes with unstable headship include the Anda- 
manese, Abipones, Snakes and some Bedouins, who are 
nomadic in their mode of life ; also the village Veddahs, 
the Bodos, the Dhimals, the Chinooks, some Eskimos, 
some Kamtschatkans and some Caribs, who are semi- 
settled; and the Todas, Nagas, Karens, Santals, Vatdans, 
Fannese, Coroados, some Dyaks, and some New Guinea 
tribes, who dwell in permanent settlements. Most of 
these tribes recognize no chiefs except in time of war, 
and then confer little authority on them. 

A common feature of weak political organization is 
that every village is independent, and among its residents 
there is no sense of loyalty or duty of peace towards the 
inhabitants of adjacent villages of the same blood, lan- 
guage and customs. This is the general condition of 



SEC. 105. STABLE HEADSHIP 211 

tribes without chiefs, and is common among those in 
which the power of the chief is weak or unstable. With 
village independence, goes the man's privilege to move 
from one village to another. In this way an unpopular 
chief may find himself left without supporters. Such 
village independence prevails among many Bedouins, 
whose migratory life, the necessary result of their pas- 
toral condition in a desert country, is not favorable to the 
establishment of permanent authority. 

Some few tribes elect their chiefs for terms less than 
life. In Rotuma the term is six months ; in Ambriz, five 
years. The Bedouins have a hereditary military leader, 
and an elective political chief; and some tribes have a 
hereditary political and elective military chief In unsta- 
ble headship, and weak stable headship, the chiefs are 
required, by many tribes, to give periodical feasts to their 
subjects and on such occasions to distribute presents.^ 

Sec. 105. Stable Headship. — Stable chieftainship made 
its first appearance among tribes organized on the basis 
of the feminine clan in tilling culture. Each clan elected 
a political chief and a military chief, who held office until 
he was deposed by the clan assembly, and as this 
power of deposition was very rarely exercised, the ten- 
ure was practically for life. The power attached to the 
office was not great. The political chief could not 
administer justice; the military chief could not enforce 
his commands. The office had more dignity than 
authority. 

The frequency of warfare, the importance of having 
brave chiefs experienced in arms, the timidity of women 
generally and their abstinence from the use of weapons, 
have excluded them from chieftainship in most savage 
tribes, even in those which traced their blood exclusively 



212 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

in the female' line. Exceptions to this rule are the Nar- 
ragansetts of Rhode Island, the Guaranis of South 
America and some African tribes, which permit women 
to exercise the office of chief 

Sec. io6. Industrial Chiefs. — There are industrial chiefs,, 
with authority over matters of trade and labor, in Fiji,. 
Dahomey, and some Dyak countries. In Celebes and 
Eastern Africa, the days for commencing to sow and ta 
harvest are fixed by chiefs ; among the Kadogans and 
Hawaiians, the prices of food are regulated by them ; 
among the Tongans, traffic at fairs is under their super- 
vision ; among the Khonds, Mundrucus and many Poly- 
nesians, the chief is the broker of the community ; and 
among many tribes of Hindostan, the chief apportions 
the land of the village among the heads of families 
and superintends removals from one site to another. 

Sec. 107. Assemblies, etc. — Assemblies to deliberate 
about public affairs had their origin in non-tilling culture,, 
beginning with military and afterwards extending to 
political affairs. Their highest development in savagism 
was among the Redmen east of the Mississippi, where 
every village had its public square, in which the warriors 
gathered every morning and, if public business demanded 
their consideration, held a formal assembly. In many of 
the villages there is a large hut suitable for assemblies 
to be held in wet or cold weather. On such occasions,, 
the right of speech belongs exclusively to the chiefs,, 
distinguished warriors, and such other persons as might 
be called upon by a chief There is no precise rule of 
order as in a civilized legislative body ; no secretary ; no 
counting of votes. The decisions are rendered by 
acclamation.^ In many tribes the boys and women may 
sit outside of the circle of warriors and join in the 



J 



SEC. 1 08. CONFEDERACIES. 21 3 

acclamations. These assemblies of the warriors elect 
the chiefs and have general jurisdiction of all the more 
important political affairs, especially of peace and war, 
among the North American Indians, and are fre- 
quent and influential in many African tribes. Those 
tribes which have strong hereditary nobilities, usually do 
not permit the common freemen to hold assemblies, but 
restrict the public discussions of political affairs to coun- 
cils of nobles. 

Sec. 108. Confederacies. — Representative governments 
Avere not unknown to savagism. They existed among 
the North American Indians and also among the Batta 
Malays and the Berbers. The Iroquois confederation 
comprised five tribes, each tribe divided into several 
clans, each clan with its popular assembly and its 
elective chiefs who formed a tribal council. Each tribe 
had its federal representatives. The confederate council, 
consisting of fift}^ members, had general charge of peace 
and war ; it elected two federal military chiefs who led 
the troops in war ; it installed the clan chiefs elected by 
the clan assemblies; it presumably had power to annul 
elections of unsuitable persons, and had certain cere- 
monial or religious functions, as at funerals of distin- 
guished warriors. In the meetings each tribe had only 
one speaker and one vote, and there was no decision with- 
out unanimity. The proceedings were secret until com- 
municated by order to the tribal councils, which could 
then transmit them to the clan assemblies. 

The Wolf clan of the Onandaga tribe was entitled to 
a federal councillor who was keeper of the wampum, 
with functions suggestive of those of a modern secretary. 
Whenever a clan chief was installed, the keeper of the 
wampum was one of the chief speakers. He produced 



214 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

his belt of beads, and made it the text of an address 
explaining the meaning of the different strands, indic- 
ative of the manner in which the confederacy was 
organized, the powers conferred on the federal council, 
and the duties of the clans and tribes to one another.^ 

There were, every year, about half a dozen federal 
religious festivals, and at each of these the federal council 
held a meeting, and took charge of the ceremonies. 
Whenever a new clan chief was to be installed, it held a 
session of seven days. The first day was devoted to 
mourning for the dead chief: the second to the installa- 
tion of his successor ; and the others to brief meetings 
in which there were formal addresses. Every day dur- 
ing these councils, the councillors dined together at 
twilight. 

This Iroquois confederation was maintained for three 
centuries in harmonious and effective action.^ 

We have no clear account of any other federal govern- 
ment among the aboriginal Americans, but there are 
traces of it among the Muscoculgees (including the 
Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees andSeminoles), 
the Upper Missouri tribes (including the Mandans, Mini- 
tarees and Crows), the Lower Missouri tribes (including 
the Omahas, lowas. Punkas, Otoes, Kaws and Winne- 
bagoes), the Dakotas, the Munsees, and the Mohegans. 
In all these cases, the warrior considered his allegiance 
to his clan as the strongest, to the tribe weaker, and to 
the confederacy weakest. 

Every Friday, the Berbers of Morocco meet in the 
market places of their villages to consider public affairs, 
if any should demand their attention. Twice a year this 
popular assembly elects a mayor, councilmen and sev- 
eral other officials ; and the mayors, as representatives 



SEC. 109. RETALIATION. 21 5 

of the villages, form a tribal council.^ The Batta Malays 
also have tribal councils, consisting of representatives 
each of whom is chosen by his commune, which last 
may include as many as ten villages."* 

When the student considers that representation is one 
of the main features in which the governments of the 
modern Europeans surpass those of ancient Greece and 
Rome, to whose greatest statesmen and political philoso- 
phers its principles were unknown ; and when with our 
representative governments he compares the greatly 
inferior contemporaneous despotisms ; when he keeps 
these ideas before his mind, it seems strange to him to 
be told that the Iroquois confederation with its systematic 
representation, its orderly councils, and its prosperity 
dating from a time before Columbus, belongs to a lower 
step of political development than the brutal and violent 
despotism of Dahomey. But it is nevertheless true. 
The Iroquois were the best representatives of tribes with 
weak chiefs ; the Dahomans are among the worst of those 
with strong, stable chiefs. 

Sec. 109. Retaliation. — Having no sense of moral 
obligation to anyone beyond the limits of their own 
small domestic group, and no idea that violence to an 
outsider is wrong, non-tilling savages do not feel the 
need of a governmental administration. They find it 
necessary however that group should defend itself against 
group, and for this purpose they adopted retaliation, 
which prevailed everywhere in the low tribes, and exten- 
sively in higher conditions, even far into barbarism. 

This system requires that any damage to person or 
property, even if done unintentionally or in self-defense, 
must be avenged by inflicting a similar injury. No dis- 
tinction is made as to the obligation of retaliation. 



2l6 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

between treacherous assassination and justifiable homi- 
cide. Such a confusion, in regard to the moral character 
of actions, is the natural result of the lack of judicial 
investigation. Without evidence of the motives, and 
with the knowledge of a general hostility towards every- 
body outside of the group, custom established the prin- 
ciple that every injury was to be regarded as malicious 
and without excuse. The thirst of the relatives for ven- 
geance however would not be so fierce, if they knew 
that the man to be avenged had provoked his fate by 
malignant violence or gross folly. 

If the victim of the wrong survived and was able to 
punish the offender, the chief duty of retaliation rested on 
him ; and he was required to get as near an equivalent 
as possible ; an eye for an eye ; a finger for a finger ; an 
ear for an ear. If his horse had been stolen he must 
recover the animal or steal another of equal value. In 
case of homicide, the obligation rested on certain rela- 
tives, and if there were none, then on the group, clan or 
tribe. The duty is not limited to persons of adult age 
at the time the offense was committed, nor even to per- 
sons then living, but descends to those of subsequent 
birth, to posthumous son and grandson, nephew and 
grandnephew. In many Arab tribes it rests with spe- 
cial force on all the male descendants of the same great- 
great-grandfather ; and under some circumstances may 
remain in force for more than a century. The son whose 
father's death is unavenged, must wear his father's slip- 
pers once a year. 

The universal authority of the retaliatory system 
among non-tilling savages, its general prevalence in the 
higher tribes, and its acceptance by many barbarous 
nations, are significant illustrations of the rudeness and 



SEC. 109. RETALIATION. 21/ 

violence of human nature in the earlier stages of culture, 
and strong evidences of the fact that those who do not 
combine their forces for energetic defense, would soon 
be plundered and destroyed without pity. Because of 
the general consciousness that it was indispensable as a 
method of defense, its enforcement was the most sacred 
of all oblig-ations and negflect to enforce it was the most 
disgraceful of all offenses. 

Writing of the Australian aborigines, Sir George Grey 
said, " The holiest duty a native is called on to perform 
is that of aveh^inof the death of his nearest relation, for 
it is his peculiar duty to do so ; until he has fulfilled 
this task, he is constantly taunted by the old women ; 
his wives, if he is married, would soon quit him ; if he 
is unmarried, not a single young woman would speak 
to him ; his mother would constantly cry and lament 
that she should ever have given birth to so degenerate 
a son ; his father would treat him with contempt, and 
reproaches would constantly be sounded in his ear." ^ 

As part of the duty of retaliation rests on the mem- 
bers of the family, village or clan, according to the sys- 
tem on which the tribe is organized, so satisfaction may 
be attained by punishing any of the family, village, or 
clan of the offender. The man who provokes retaliation 
thus exposes his friends to danger, and in communities 
which are beginning to accumulate property, and to pre- 
fer peaceful industry, he becomes unpopular, and sub- 
jects himself to the danger of expulsion. Arab robbers 
usually avoid homicide for fear that it will induce their 
friends to turn against them. 

In the blood feuds between families or clans, one of 
the main ideas of savage justice is that as many should 
be slain on one side as on the other, and in some cases 



21 8 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

it is only on the basis of such a calculation, that peace 
can be made. The party, which has lost the greatest 
number, demands that the other shall surrender enough 
victims to equalize the account or shall pay the custom- 
ary equivalent in money or other property.^ 

Sec. no. Retaliation Restricted. — The law of retalia- 
tion decreased in importance with every political change, 
after the establishment of the small headless group. It 
diminished when the feminine clan arose, and when the 
masculine clan appeared, and when the clan grew to in- 
clude many people ; and when clans disappeared in con- 
solidated tribes ; and when tribal governments became 
stable and strong. The independence of the group, clan, 
or family, on which the idea of retaliation is based, is in- 
consistent with the peace of the tribe and with the dig- 
nity and power of the hereditary chief. Although it 
could not be suddenly overthrown, it was subjected to a 
succession of limitations by substituting fines for per- 
sonal violence, by restrictions of time within which the 
punishment must be inflicted, by instituting asylums 
where offenders should be secure, and by requiring that 
vengeance should not be taken without the previous 
consent of the chief or priest. 

Many tribes have schedules of penalties accepted by 
custom, with allowances for differences in rank. The 
fine for killing a freeman is more than for a slave ; more 
for a noble than for a freeman ; more for a man than for 
a woman. Among the Gallas, a thousand oxen will pac- 
ify the relatives of a murdered man ; fifty are enough for 
those of a woman. Peaceable settlements are most fre- 
quent when the offended clan is the weaker of the two, 
when there was great provocation for the offense, when 
the two clans are exposed to a great danger from the 



SEC. I 10. RETALIATION RESTRICTED. 2I9 

same enemy, or when both are intimately related to 
some third organization which uses its influence to re- 
store friendly feeling. Among the Malays, money com- 
pensation must always be accepted when a superior has 
slain an inferior, but never when the victim was the 
superior in political rank. They have asylums, and he 
who reaches one, is exempt from the blood penalty but 
must pay the established indemnity. There is also a 
limitation of time, after the lapse of which the offender 
may present himself with the pecuniary fine and be re- 
leased from further responsibility. The avengers among 
theBatta Malays eat the murderer, subject to retaliation. 
The Mosaic .law forbids the acceptance of money satis- 
faction ;^ the Koran permits it.^ 

Asylums for refugees from retaliation were favored by 
despotic chiefs, whose interests were adverse to the sys- 
tem, and who yet had no better way of administering 
justice. In Kafifirland the grave of the chief becomes a sa- 
cred place, where the murderer is safe from punish- 
ment f in Hawaii, Tonga, and Samoa, enclosures are 
consecrated for the purpose.* The Arabs have no asy- 
lum, but they have rules under which the thief or mur- 
derer may secure the protection of a member of the 
group which has captured him, and thus prevent pun- 
ishment. The tribes with weak chieftainship have gen- 
erally no asylum, but to this rule, the Creeks are an ex- 
ception.^ 

No savage tribe has had officials who devoted them- 
selves exclusively to the administration of justice; and 
very few have had chiefs who absolutely forbade re- 
taliation in all cases. Perhaps the Iroquois Confedera- 
tion made as much progress in that direction as any 
other savage community,^ but whether they did this be- 



220 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

fore they had been much influenced by the instruction 
and example of the white men is doubtful. Some Kaffir 
chiefs levy fines for their own profit on murderers, who, 
after payment, are secure against further punishment,^ 
and among the Hottentots, crime is sometimes punished 
under resolutions adopted by the popular assembly.^ 

Sec. III. Despotic Chiefs. — Though stable in the 
higher forms of the feminine clan, chieftainship did not 
become strong until the rule of the masculine descent 
had been established. Then the chief could transmit, by 
inheritance, his office, his wealth, and his worship to his 
son. Then he could train the young men of his clan 
with the certainty that they would not abandon him 
soon after becoming adults. Then he was supported by 
a body of warriors, who had uniformity of military disci- 
pline, community of tradition, interest, and faith. The 
superior military strength of the masculine clan contrib- 
uted much to the power of the chief 

The highest form of savage government is despotic 
chieftainship, resting on the combination of tillage, slavery 
and nobility, as observed in Tahiti, Hawaii, and several 
other Polynesian tribes. Similar conditions are observed 
in portions of Africa. Wherever the chief has attained 
much power, there the clan has become weak or has 
entirely disappeared. The strong chief and strong state 
are hostile to the clan. The despotic chief exercises 
supreme political and military power, and if not, himself, 
the high priest of the tribal religion, he has the sup- 
port of the sacerdotal profession. In many tribes he has 
the title and attributes of the divinity, and after his death 
he is worshiped as one of the gods. Among the Micro- 
nesians, Fijians, Dahomans, Ashantees, Congoese and 
some Polynesians, he has ministers to execute his decrees. 



SEC. 112. SUCCESSION. 221 

Sec. 112. Succession, — The early rule that rank and 
office, as well as property, should descend in the female 
line exclusively, gave way with advancing culture to 
male inheritance. To the chief exercising little authority, 
gaining little honor and wealth from his office and shar- 
ing his wives with others of his village, it seemed quite 
reasonable and satisfactory that the eldest son of his 
eldest sister should be his heir ; but a different feeling 
prevailed in the mind of the despotic chief, with a 
devoted army, a considerable revenue, a subservient 
priesthood, and wives who could not be untrue to him 
without great peril. He would demand that the succes- 
sion should go to his son, who often inherited his feat- 
ures and form, and sometimes his character and capacity ► 
who had been trained in his tactics and his policy ; and 
who, by association in the administration, was prepared to 
fill the place of ruler when left vacant by the death of his 
father. 

The weaker and less stable the power of the chief, the 
less the rivalry for the succession. In tribes that elect, 
the change occurs more quietly than under the hereditary 
system, mainly because the power is usually less, and the 
unsuccessful have little to fear from the successful compet- 
itor. Despotism among savages is cruel, and a change of 
rulers is often accompanied by liberal bloodshed. Polyg- 
yny provides a number of sons, of whom the eldest may 
have the most experience in political and military affairs, 
and the most favor with the warriors generally, while the 
son of a younger and favorite wife, may have the aid of 
the father and his ministers. In such case, everyone 
foresees that the death of the chief will be the signal for 
a relentless struggle which will end with the death of the 
unsuccessful aspirants, and their most active supporters. 



222 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

unless they can succeed in escaping to some foreign ter- 
ritory. The victor not only destroys his rivals, but also 
orders the execution of younger brothers, even infants, 
who might in time become formidable. Such a method 
of procedure has not been restricted to savage life, but 
has been practiced extensively in such barbarous com- 
munities as Turkey, Persia, Morocco, and other Moham- 
medan states. 

The danger of the assassination of the chief, by his 
eldest son, led some Kaffir tribes to adopt the rule that 
the succession must belong to a son born to the chief by 
a wife whom he had taken after he had passed middle 
life. In Uganda, the high chief is selected by a council 
of three officials, and if they select a minor who has 
brothers, these are imprisoned till the end of the regency, 
and then the ruler orders the execution of those of his 
brothers whom he -suspects of possessing the desire and 
influence to become dangerous rivals.^ 

In Tahiti, where the king or head chief had a semi- 
divine character, which increased in sacredness with the 
number of his royal ancestors, so soon as a son was born 
to a ruler, the legal title passed to the son, and from that 
time forward the father exercised power only as regent.' 
The custom had its origin presumably in the anxiety to 
secure succession in the male line, at a time when, on 
account of ancient custom, many persons were ready to 
support the inheritance in the female line. An analogous 
custom is found in Ashantee, where the king does hom- 
age to his newly-born heir, who there is the eldest son of 
his sister.* 

Sec. 113. Ordeals. — Among many of the higher tribes, 
ordeals managed by priests are used for the discovery or 
trial of crime. The Malagasy litigants produce each a 



SEC. 113. ORDEALS. 223 

chicken to which the priest gives portions of a poisoned 
cake, and the one which lives the longest secures success 
to its owner.^ In Angola, Wanika, the Shir valley and 
the Niger valley, the man accused of crime must take a 
poison prepared by the priest and if it proves fatal he is 
guilty. In Angola, innocence is proved by immediately 
vomiting ; any other result means death, but in Wanika 
if he vomit up the poisoned dose, with much loss of 
blood, he is guilty.^ The Wanika have various other 
ordeals. The innocent man is expected to pass his hand 
slowly four times over red-hot iron, or to lift up a red-hot 
stone, without being burned ; or to allow a red-hot needle 
to be drawn through his lips without loss of blood.^ 
The Hawaiians have an ordeal in which a person, accused 
of theft, holds his hands over a dish of water before a 
priest, and the ruffling of the surface of the fluid is proof 
of guilt.' 

In some parts of Africa, when a theft has been com- 
mitted and the offender is unknown, the people of the 
village assemble under order of the chief, and a priest 
going about among the multitude, points out the crim- 
inal, who is slain on the spot or is required to submit to 
an ordeal and, if the result be unfavorable, he is slain im- . 
mediately. 

Among the Sea Dyaks, the litigant, who can hold his 
head longest under water, wins his case.^ The Singe 
Dyaks decide their civil suits by a head-hunting compe- 
tition. The man who slays some person not belonging 
to his native village, and brings the fresh head to the 
chief first, has judgment rendered in his favor.^ An 
augury used by other Dyak tribes, prescribes that the 
litigants shall each produce a lump of salt. The pieces 
are reduced to equal weight, and then thrown into a pot 



224 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

of water. He whose lump dissolves first loses his case. 
Another method requires each litigant to produce a 
snail. The two snails placed ^ide by side on a plate are 
touched with lime juice, and the snail that moves first 
brings loss to its owner.^ In all these cases of ordeal or 
augury as means of the administration of justice, it is 
presumable that the priest manages the result in a man- 
ner conducive to his personal interest. The ordeals are 
most common in those tribes which have despotic chiefs 
ready to confiscate the property or enslave the family of 
the guilty. 

Sec. 114. Property. — One of the chief characteristics 
of savagism is that it has no noteworthy increase of 
wealth. In many tribes the only kinds of property pre- 
served from year to year are huts, arms, tools, furniture, 
clothes, and ornaments, and these are destroyed with 
their owner, or are merely replaced when broken or 
worn out. Their stock is not greater in one generation 
than in another. There is no tilled land, no herd, no 
accumulated supply of food. Thus it is that, after the 
lapse of centuries, neither the tribe nor any family in it 
has made any considerable addition to its possessions. 

Among the non-tilling tribes, any supply of food, even 
if insufificient for the next meal of the family, is insecure 
if visible to friends or strangers. Custom authorizes 
everybody to go to the cooking pot and help himself 
without asking permission. Not only must the savage 
share the scanty meal with every other person present, 
but when he finds a large stock of food or kills a large 
animal, whether wild or tame, he must announce the 
fact to his fellow villagers, so that they may have their 
portion. In time of scarcity he must not eat a hare or 
grouse without taking it to his hut. 



SEC. I 14. PROPERTY. 22$ 

Such common property in food is a necessary conse- 
quence of tlie lawlessness and violence of low savagism. 
The known possession of a large stock of provisions and 
the refusal to distribute it in time of general scarcity, 
would have invited attack and destruction. Unlimited 
hospitality, adopted under the influence of fear and cau- 
tion, not of affection and generosity, enables the idle and 
thriftless, the unskillful and the weak, to live at the ex- 
pense of the toilsome, provident, strong and skilful hun- 
ter. It thus discourages extensive cultivation and prob- 
ably had much influence in delaying the collection of 
large herds of ruminants, long after single animals had 
been kept as pets. 

As savage culture advanced, the idea of individual 
property gained strength, and its amount increased. 
The common stock of acorns, seeds, dried fish, or 
scorched grasshoppers, belonging to the village was su- 
perseded by a stock for each household ; and this supply, 
until it was put into the cooking pot or brought out for 
a meal, could not be touched by any person save a mem- 
ber of the family. 

The introduction of tillage gave a basis for individual 
title in land, and for the accumulation of tools, food, and 
weapons, and made a demand for law to protect prop- 
erty. This ownership and law contributed much and 
were indispensable to the advance of culture. Without 
their help, our race would have remained savage forever. 

Generally the non-tilling savages have no conception 
of an individual right in land, but in portions of Aus- 
tralia, special families have the exclusive privilege of tak- 
ing game in certain districts ; and similar claims to the 
exclusive right of hunting are recognized in Unyoro, 
where tillage is the main dependence of the people. In 

T5 



226 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

some of the tilling tribes, there is an individual or family 
title to the tract under cultivation. Among the Red- 
men, the Todas/ the Batta Malays/ and some Polyne- 
sians^ the village has a common field, on which every fam- 
ily has its patch which is inalienable and descends from 
generation to generation, becoming the property of the 
community when the family dies out, or emigrates. In 
some tribes of Africa and Hindostan, the family or in- 
dividual has nothing but a tenancy for a year; and at 
the end of the crop season, the chief or the village as- 
sembly may make a new distribution of the land. 

The tilling tribes, organized in feminine clans, give to 
the wife the ownership of the dwelling and the cultivated 
land ; and among the Moquis, the house, the fields, the 
trees, the crops, and the sheep belong to her, while her 
husband claims the horses and mules.^ 

In New Zealand, property stolen and concealed or 
withheld from the owner for three days belongs to the 
thief; and in that group, as well as in the Marquesas Is- 
lands,* public opinion justifies neighbors in taking every- 
thing portable from a person to whom some great disas- 
ter has happened. He is considered hateful to the gods, 
who delight in seeing men complete the work com- 
menced by the supernatural powers. Among the Sa- 
moans and Tongans, the unlucky man may be murdered, 
after he has been plundered, without offense to public 
opinion.^ 

Sec. 115. Slavery. — Before the introduction of tillage 
there was no profitable occupation for slaves and there- 
fore little slavery. Agriculture is the foundation of 
human bondage. All the tribes which have much tilled 
ground have many slaves, and conversely those which 
have many slaves have much cultivation. The posses- 



SEC. 115. SLAVERY. 22/ 

sion of numerous bondmen supplied a large stock of 
food, gave the freemen leisure to devote themselves to 
military discipline, compelled them to keep in readiness 
to defend their possessions and led them to increase the 
strength of their political organization. 

Although many of the women are held by the men in 
a condition of humiliating subjection, there is no proper 
slavery among the Australians, Bushmen, Lower Califor- 
nians, Fuegians and Andamanese. The Redmen east of 
the Rocky Mountains have few slaves. Their tillage is 
scanty and nearly all its work is done by the women. 
In many African tribes slavery is a prominent institution, 
but its highest development in savagism is found in 
Tahiti, Hawaii and Tonga, where it is cherished and for- 
tified by extensive agriculture, hereditary nobility, heredi- 
tary priesthood, and despotic chieftainship. 

In many slave-holding savage countries, the propor- 
tion of slaves in the total population does not exceed 
one-fifth, but in Mandingo, it is three-fourths, in Yoruba 
four-fifths,^ and in Bondu nine-tenths.^ There is no 
regular market for slaves in savagism, unless men in a 
higher culturestep have made a demand for them. 
In Uganda, and other African tribes,^ if a chief wants 
slaves and other plunder, while afraid to attack any 
neighboring tribe, he provokes one of his own provinces 
to rebellion and then enslaves its inhabitants and appro- 
priates their herds. 

Slaves are not allowed to decorate themselves m fash- 
ionable style. They dare not flatten their heads in the 
regions where head flattening is customary among the 
freemen; nor where tattoo is practiced, must they be 
tattooed unless it be with a simple mark known as that of 
their master, so that if they escape they may be recog- 



228 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

nized; nor dare they paint themselves in the styles 
adopted by the warriors. 

In some tribes a man whose person or property has 
been seriously injured by a slave is entitled to the slave 
in compensation, and the slave may do an injury for the 
sake of a change of masters. Among the Foolahs more 
than one desirable master has lost both his ears.'' One 
form of virtue is its own punishment. 

Sec. 1 1 6. Nobility. — Hereditary nobility, in savagism, 
implies a compact tribal organization and powerful chief- 
tainship. It cannot flourish under the exogamous clan^ 
and it is especially hostile to the feminine clan. Its 
origin in war and its devotion to war as its chief occupa- 
tion, require a more powerful military organization than 
can be obtained in the lowest phases of social and politi- 
cal development. Its predominant spirit is militant. It 
must always be ready to fight to maintain its superior 
political privileges, to keep its slaves in subjection, to 
defend its property, to acquire more slaves and to pro- 
tect the power, credit and territory of the tribe. 

The increasing accumulation of property in the high- 
est phases of savagism is intimately associated with polit- 
ical inequality and class privilege. When a hereditary 
aristocracy made its appearance, the old system of 
unlimited hospitality came to an end. The noble could 
not treat his slaves as his social equals or give them free 
access to his stores. He must accumulate stocks of pro- 
visions with which to supply them at all seasons of the 
year. His possession of slaves made it necessary that 
he should own large tracts of land, to which their toil 
gave value ; and law and order came with the increase of 
wealth. 

Counting the chiefs and slaves, there were four heredi- 



SEC. 117. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT. 229 

tary ranks in Tahiti and Hawaii, six in Ashantee, and in 
most of the Polynesian groups.^ In Tonga, the nobles 
owned all the land, to which the commoners as their 
clients, were attached. In Hawaii, the rabble were not 
attached to the soil, but most of them were clients of a 
noble to whose protection they were entitled and whom 
they were bound to assist and defend.^ 

The Micronesians generally are divided into high no- 
bles, low nobles, commoners and slaves. The commoners 
till the soil, build boats, make nets, carry loads and cook. 
They cannot have a religious consecration to marriage, 
nor own land, nor trade with people from another island, 
nor go out to sea in boats, nor use seines or fish hooks, 
nor catch any fish save eels. *They have no souls, no 
future life, nor share in the worship and favor of the gods. 
When a noble passes near them, they must step out of 
the way and squat down, and in speaking to him they 
must use peculiar terms implying a recognition of his 
superior rank.^ 

Polynesian and Micronesian customs do not permit 
marriage across the lines of hereditary rank. A noble 
cannot marry a commoner, nor can a slave woman become 
the wife of a commoner. Among savages as well as 
among barbarians and civilized people, it is a more serious 
offense in a woman than in a man to have a love affair 
with a person of inferior rank. 

In Ashango, every commoner must be under the pro- 
tection of a noble, to save him from the danger of 
enslavement.* When his patron dies without a male heir, 
the client secures a new defender by putting his hand on 
the head of another noble. 

Sec. 117. Political Development. — In our examination 
of savagre polity, we have found many indications of 



230 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

slow and regular development from extremely rude 
forms. The lowest government known to us is that of 
the headless group, which has no chief, no political as- 
sembly, and no political function save that of defending 
its members, retaliation for wrongs done being a promi- 
nent feature in the system of defense. This group is 
found only among the non-tilling savages, such as the 
Australians. 

A step higher is the group with unstable headship, in 
which there are elective chiefs with a brief tenure of of- 
fice, and with very little power. A grade above this is 
the condition of stable chieftainship, such as we find 
among the feminine clan tribes in tilling culture, such as 
the Iroquois and Creeks'. The chiefs though holding 
office practically for life, have little power. In tribes 
consisting of masculine clans, the power of the chief in- 
creases until it has the support of slavery and nobility, 
and then becomes despotic. Such governments we find 
in tropical Polynesia and in portions of Africa. With 
despotic chieftainship, the influence of the clan dimin- 
ishes and retaliation is restricted. With the growth of 
slavery and nobility, the ideas of property rights in land 
and in stocks of provisions, obtain clearer recognition. 
The establishment of permanent chieftainship, of the 
masculine clan, of slavery, of nobility, and of despotic 
government, each gave a decided stimulus to the military 
spirit, and each was the basis of some notable improve- 
ment in military discipline. Every department of savage 
polity abounds with the traces of growth. 



CHAPTER VII. 
MILITARY SYSTEM. 

Section ii8. War. — The ancient Greeks had a prov- 
erb that *' war is the natural state of man," and their 
experience justified the assertion, but ours leads us to 
add the condition '* in the lower culturesteps." In the 
advanced civilization of our day, peace has become the 
rule, and we can clearly see that industrialism, the nat- 
ural ally of peace and enemy of war, is rapidly advanc- 
ing to a controlling influence in human life. 

The only savages who take no pleasure in war, and in- 
deed never engage in it, are some few tribes in the polar 
regions, and in the hills of Hindostan, The Todas, the 
Greenlanders, and the Eskimos, have no weapons to be 
used against men, and when war was first described to 
the people on the shores of Baffin's Bay, they could not 
understand why it should exist. 

The feeling of kindness, the sense of duty to all men, 
the horror at the outrages accompanying war, the inter- 
ests of industry and comfort, and written treaties keeping 
the precise phraseology of international promises before 
the eyes, are great safeguards of peace in advanced cul- 
ture and are lacking in its lower stages. Among sav- 
ages generally it is not only permissible but honorable 
to plunder or to slay every stranger, that is, every per- 
son outside of one's own group, clan, or tribe. Though 

(231) 



232 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

war does not take up so much of the man's time as the 
chase or the search for food, he regards it as his princi- 
pal occupation/ without which hfe would not be worth 
living.'^ The hostility of tribe against tribe is handed 
down from generation to generation, with traditions of 
triumphs to be rivaled and of humiliations to be avenged. 

The lower the culturestep, the smaller the political 
groups, and the nearer the hostile communities to one 
another, the larger is the proportion of warriors to the 
whole population, the more continuous the warfare, the 
greater the insecurity of life, and the larger the areas oc- 
cupied by dangerous frontiers. 

The first chiefs were those accepted as leaders in mili- 
tary movements. Their leadership began and ended 
with war or with some campaign, and was limited to 
matters connected with it directly. The power was ad- 
visory rather than mandatory ; there was no enforcement 
of commands among warriors, but as the groups became 
larger, and warfare more systematic, the need of disci- 
pline was felt keenly and the authority of the chief in- 
creased, until it became mandatory, permanent, political, 
and despotic. Out of war grew governments. The first 
assemblies for the discussion of public affairs, like the 
first chiefs, had a military origin. The warriors when 
about to engage in expeditions of great importance to 
the clan or tribe, met to consult about the plan of action. 
This was a natural mode of procedure when the chiefs 
were leaders rather than commanders. The warriors 
who were to do the fighting were called upon to pledge 
themselves to hearty cooperation and to share the re- 
sponsibility of the result. 

When in later times assemblies were held for purely 
political purposes, ancient custom required the warriors 



SEC. 119. BATTLE. 233 

to appear with their weapons, and decorated as for battle. 
The speaker held his spear or other weapon as if prepared 
for immediate action, and in his gestures he brandished it, 
while the auditory applauded him by rattling with their 
spears or clubs on their shields, as well as by shouts, in 
a manner that would never have been adopted originally 
by any save a military gathering. 

Sec. 119. Battle. — In the battles of low savagism, the 
warriors fight each for himself arid by himself, so that 
the conflict is not a meeting of two compact bodies each 
guided by a single commander, but an irregular skirmish 
in which every warrior selects his own position, advances 
or retreats as suits himself, and usually keeps at a con- 
siderable distance from his friends as well as his enemies. 

With paint and grimaces and yells he makes himself 
as hideous as possible ; and tries to frighten his oppo- 
nents by exhibiting his trophies and boasting of his tri- 
umphs in former contests. The skillful warrior will often 
stand out boldly at a distance of fifty yards from an 
enemy who throws spears and shoots arrows, each of 
which is coolly turned from its course, or caught in the 
hand as it passes. 

Among the Australians the throwing and dodging of 
spears would often continue for several hours before any- 
one was hurt. The infliction of the first serious wound 
was considered a victory and was followed by a great 
outcry and the sudden flight of the defeated party, leav- 
ing the wounded man to be beaten, slain, and despoiled 
of his kidney fat with which the conquerors rubbed 
themselves. All male captives were slain; the women 
were kept as wives of the successful warriors.^ 

The Australians and Polynesians were so much afraid 
in the dark of malignant spirits, that they rarely vent- 



234 ^ HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

ured to make night attacks, but he who sneaked into a 
hostile camp in the darkness and succeeded in despatch- 
ing a woman or child was regarded as a model of cour- 
age.^ The glory of the savage consists in killing a 
member of a hostile village or tribe, without regard to 
age or sex of the victim or the method of the exploit. 

In several Polynesian groups, battle orators devoted 
themselves to the encouragement of the warriors on 
their side. One of these howled to his men, *' Rush 
on them like an ocean wave, like a breaker running over 
a reef Show your power, your fury, the fury of a rag- 
ing wild dog, till their lines scatter and they flee like the 
sea at ebb tide."^ The priests were also warriors, and it 
was expected that the younger priests should be among 
the boldest and most active in battle. 

The women go to the battle-field to add to the show 
of strength, to help in making a fearful clamor, to carry 
weapons and supplies, to watch the hostile movements, 
to carry off or aid wounded friends, to despatch and 
mutilate wounded enemies, and to participate in the 
fight under favorable circumstances. Dahomey* and 
Uganda^ have regiments of women soldiers, armed and 
disciplined like men, and as efficient as the other sex. 

*' The boldness with which the European exposes 
himself in the open field seems stupid to the Indian. 
He seeks his fame in exploits, combining cunning, speed, 
and boldness for the purpose of injuring his enemy with 
little danger to himself He trusts mainly to the first as- 
sault, and when that does not promise him complete 
success, flight is creditable. An Indian proverb says, ' It 
is the ambition of the warrior to sneak about the enemy 
like a fox, to attack him like a tiger and to fly away like 
a bird.' " ' 



SEC. 119. BATTLE. 235 

With such ideas, the Redmen pride themselves on 
tricks considered disgraceful among white men. On one 
occasion, a Dakota stole into a Pawnee village at night, 
got into a large hut by descending the chimney, with his 
knife slew a number of the sleeping inmates before any 
alarm was given, and when discovered, shouted his war- 
cry and fled in the darkness. His tribe honored him 
greatly for this exploit. Worse than this conduct was 
that of seven Delawares who entered the village of an- 
other tribe as pretended friends, and after accepting its 
hospitality suddenly raised the war-cry, attacked their 
hosts and fled with their scalps before efficient resistance 
could be made.^ 

When organizing a hostile excursion, most North 
American and some other tribes prepare themselves by 
a war dance to stimulate themselves to fury for their 
bloody work, and sometimes also to test their powers of 
endurance,^ and prove their fitness for long and exhaust- 
ing marches. They dress themselves in their war paint, 
exhibit their scalps and other trophies, brandish their 
weapons, howl like demons, chant their war songs, pre- 
dict what wonders they will do, and tell all the evil they 
know or can imagine of the enemy. Of all the war 
dances, that of the Maoris is the most impressive and the 
most hideous. The warriors fix their eyes with a fero- 
cious glare, thrust out their tongues as an expression of 
defiance, leap about with concerted and violent jumps, 
and shriek loudly, the combined action having an effect 
that gives a contagious frenzy to every warrior of the 
tribe, and that fills others with horror. In the dance the 
participants are a compact body and their movements 
uniform ; but on the battle-field they scatter and each 
fights by himself. The confidence, with which they are 



2^6 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

filled by their preparatory capers, soon evaporates if the 
luck of the contest turns against them, and they can 
show as much energy in running from danger as in 
dancing. But flight does not disgrace a savage. It is 
not until men learn to fight in compact masses that dis- 
cipline requires them to stand firmly while men continu- 
ally fall near them, under the hostile missiles. 

Those tribes which built large boats, fought on water 
as well as on land. In some of the Polynesian groups, 
a war canoe would hold from sixty to a hundred men, 
and small as were their islands, thousands of combatants 
would meet in a naval battle, and with greater loss of 
life than on land, for at sea when a boat w^as disabled, its 
inmates were all slaughtered. The Hawaiian canoes car- 
ried standards by which they could be recognized at a 
distance. 

Sec. 1 20. Trophies. — Trophies taken in the chase and 
in war have been prized in all culturesteps. Among 
those of the hunter are the tail of the fox, the horns of 
the antelope, deer, and elk, and the skins of the lion, ti- 
ger, leopard, and bear. As evidences of success in war, 
heads were exhibited by the Egyptains and Jews of an- 
tiquity,^ and by the Dyaks and Paladans of Borneo, the 
Mundrucus, the Nagas, the Abipones, the Maoris, and 
the Samoans of modern times ; skulls by the Congoese, 
Ashantees, Dahomans, Kukis, Botocudos, Marquesans, 
Batta Malays, and some Melanesians ; scalps by the Da- 
homans, many North American tribes, the Nagas and 
ancient Scythians; jawbones by the Tahitians, Vatdans, 
and some tribes of New Guinea ; hands by the Khonds ; 
forefingers, thumbs, and big toes by various tribes ; teeth 
by the Kingsmill Islanders ; and other parts by the 
Gallas, Abyssinians and Apaches. 



SEC. 121. FORTIFICATIONS. 23/ 

In many tribes a trophy indicating that the possessor 
has killed a human being is indispensable to an honor- 
able social or political position. Without it the man 
cannot get a wife, wear the decoration of a warrior, or 
appear in the public assembly. 

Sec. 121. Fortifications. — Fortifications make their first 
appearance in tilling culture. They are not found in 
Australia, Tasmania, or Lower California. The most 
numerous and extensive class of savage fortifications are 
those of the Mound-Builders, erected several centuries 
since in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 
Next to these come the pile villages of the Swiss lake 
dwellers. After these are the villages of the Maoris and 
Iroquois surrounded with palisades and trenches. The 
Tahitians, Hawaiians, Fijians, and many African tribes 
have carefully constructed fortifications. 

The remains of the fortifications of the Mound-Build- 
ers (as they have been called), in the Mississippi basin, 
are numerous, and vary in the areas inclosed, from 
twenty to two hundred acres. In most cases, the sites 
are on hills near fertile valleys with springs or streams 
in the near vicinity. They are usually of earth, rarely 
of rough stone, and when first known to white men, the 
earth walls were so broad and flat that a man might 
walk over them without suspecting that he was stepping 
on a work of art. If on the top of a small hill, the wall 
follows its shapes ; if the fortification be on a large level 
space, it may have the form of circle, square, octagon, or 
long parallelogram. 

Fort Ancient, near the eastern bank of the Little 
Miami River, thirty -three miles from Cincinnati, is on a 
hill two hundred and thirty feet above the level of the 
stream. An area of one hundred acres, with a shape re- 



238 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

sembling that of an hour-glass, is enclosed by five miles 
of earthen wall, which follows the brow of the hill. The 
walls are in places twenty feet high, and opposite the gate- 
ways on the inside are mounds on which are piles of 
stones brought up from the river bed, presumably to be 
used in throwing at the enemies. A spring and reser- 
voirs inside of the fort furnish an unfailing supply of 
water. 

Near Portsmouth, Ohio, a connected series of defens- 
ive structures extends eight miles along the bank of the 
river on both sides. An enclosure eight hundred feet 
square, two parallel walls two thousand one hundred feet 
long, four concentric circles intersected by four broad 
avenues, a large truncated cone mound, and an avenue 
a mile and a half long between walls, from the mound to 
the river, are among the features of these ruins. 

Most of the works of the Mound-Builders are found 
not in the prairie regions, but in the forest where artifi- 
cial elevations were needed for giving signals. A line of 
signal mounds extends for a hundred miles along the 
Scioto valley, and a similar line in the valley of the 
Miami gave facilities for sending news sixty miles. 

One of the most remarkable of these structures, twelve 
miles west of Chillicothe, Ohio, on the summit of a hill 
four hundred feet above the valley of Paint creek, en- 
closes an area of one hundred and forty acres including 
a lakelet of two acres. The material of the walls is 
rough stone, which was evidently latid up with care 
though most of it has now tumbled over. There were 
five gateways, near which the walls were higher and 
wider than elsewhere. Inside of the enclosure were two 
stone mounds on which hot fires had been maintained, 
as the stones now show the influence of intense heat. 



SEC. 122. INITIATION. 239 

At many places there are remains of works com- 
menced and never completed. In Wayne Township, 
Butler County, Ohio, a series of eleven hillocks or small 
mounds indicates the outline of a circular wall that was 
not finished. At Alexandersville, Ohio, are the remains 
of three enclosures abandoned before completion. 

Sec. 122. Initiation. — The ceremonies observed by 
many tribes at initiation into the ranks of men and war- 
riors, and into the office of chief, may be considered part 
of their military system. There is a widely prevalent 
custom that before assuming the arms and claiming the 
rights that go with their use, the young man must prove 
his fortitude by passing creditably through a very pain- 
ful probation. Until he has done so, he cannot join a 
military expedition, participate in a deliberative assem- 
bly, take a wife, acquire property, or become a chief or 
priest. 

The most severe probation of this kind known to us, 
or the one most accurately described by a trustworthy 
witness, is that of the Mandans, and the initiations of the 
Cheyennes, Dakotas, Chippeways, Minitarees, Arickarees, 
Poncas, Hidatsas or Gros Ventres, and Blackfeet, are 
similar ; as are presumably those of many if not most 
tribes of the Redmen east of the Rocky Mountains. 
George Catlin is the only author who claims to have 
witnessed these ceremonies in all their important stages, 
and who has given us a precise account of them.^ At 
the time he was a favored guest of the Mandans, and he 
was allowed to see what had been hidden from other 
white men who had dwelt in the village for ten years or 
more. He was invited to be present at the ecclesiastical 
festival in the spring of the year 1830. At sunrise, the 
sacred hut in which the ceremony began was opened, 



240 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and the aspirants, about fifty in number, entered. Some 
warriors and a few chiefs and priests, Mr. CatHn and 
three white friends admitted at his request, were present. 
Each of the nude aspirants carried his bow, quiver, and 
shield, which he hung on the wall over the place where 
he sat down. A priest sitting near a fire in the middle 
of the hut smoked a sacred pipe and occasionally ad- 
dressed prayers to the spirits or Great Spirit to favor his 
tribe. 

Thus three days passed. The aspirants did not leave 
the hut, nor eat, nor drink nor sleep. On the fourth 
day, in the morning two priests entered. One, whose 
face was covered by a mask, carried a double-edge knife 
with edges hacked, so that it would make a painful cut. 
The other, unmasked, had a package of wooden skewers, 
five inches long nearly half an inch thick and pointed at 
both ends. 

The priest with the skewers pinched the arm above 
the elbow of one of the aspirants, and while he held it, 
the masked priest thrust the knife through making a hole 
in which he put a skewer, over which the flesh at the 
thickest was perhaps half an inch deep. This operation 
was repeated below the elbow, and in the other arm, and 
in both legs above and below the knee, so that the young 
man had eight skewers in his flesh. A similar skewer 
was inserted in each breast or each shoulder, every 
aspirant indicating by a sign whether he preferred to 
have them before or behind. This cutting and skewer- 
ing was endured by all without a groan and by most of 
them with smiles of triumph. 

The skewers being in place, the aspirant's shield was 
attached to the upper one on his left arm, and a buffalo 
skull, weighing perhaps eight pounds,^ to each of the 



SEC. 122. INITIATION. 24I 

eight skewers on his arms and legs. By ropes passing 
over poles in the roof of the hut, and fastened to the 
breast or shoulder skewers, he was then hoisted until his 
feet were three or four feet above the ground, and the 
buffalo skulls swung clear. A man with a pole pushed 
the suspended aspirant in such a manner as to make him 
turn around and the sufferer broke his silence by heart- 
rending prayers to the Great Spirit to aid him on his 
trial. All the aspirants used the same form of prayer, 
indicating that they had been taught what to say. After 
ten or twenty minutes of swinging round, fainting gave 
relief, whereupon the body was lowered to the ground 
and left to itself When the aspirant recovered conscious- 
ness, he rose, and walked to one side where he sat down 
in front of the masked priest. After holding up the little 
finger of his left hand, as a thank-offering to the Great 
Spirit for enabling him to endure his trial, he laid it on a 
buffalo skull. The masked priest by a blow of a hatchet 
cut off the finger. The sacrifice of one finger was com- 
pulsory ; on rare occasions an aspirant, to show superior 
endurance, would offer up also the forefinger of the same 
hand. The wounds thus inflicted, though not bandaged 
or otherwise treated, were not followed by inflammation 
nor by much bleeding. 

After six or eight young men had submitted to the 
hoisting and finger sacrifice, they were taken in a party 
out of the hut, and each with his four buffalo skulls 
fastened to his leg skewers, and with a friend at each 
arm to help him along, ran round a prescribed circuit 
and kept running until he fainted or until all the skewers 
tore out. If he fainted, some friends dragged him round 
face downwards, while other friends jumped on the skulls 
to make the skewers tear through the flesh. So soon as 
16 



242 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

all had torn out, the young man, abandoned by his 
friends, went to the hut of his parents where he could 
hide himself from the public gaze, and obtain nourish- 
ment and sympathetic attendance. 

Those who hung longest without fainting, who ran 
longest dragging the skulls, and who recovered soonest 
after fainting, were considered the most promising war- 
riors. It was necessary that the flesh over the skewers 
should tear out. Cutting out would not do. Catlin 
heard of one aspirant who died in the ordeal. He does 
not say distinctly, but he implies, that he had never seen 
one, or heard of one, whose fortitude failed him in the 
trial. 

The torture at the initiation of the Cheyenne aspirant 
for admission to the rank of warrior has been described 
by Col. R. S. Dodge. The young man is taken out of 
the camp by his nearest warrior relative who makes two 
vertical incisions three inches long and two inches apart 
in the muscles of the breast, and then lifts the intervening 
strip from the bone, so that a hair rope three-quarters of 
an inch thick can be passed under the flesh. The rope 
is tied to a strong pole twenty feet from the ground, so 
that the young man can run about twelve feet without 
stretching the rope ; and his trial is to throw his weight 
against the rope in such a manner as to break through 
those two strips of his pectoral muscles. He has no 
help, no company, no food, no drink, no bed, and if he is 
to be an honored warrior there he must stay until he 
tears out that stubborn flesh, perhaps with the help of 
partial mortification. If he prefers, he may have the 
cuts made in his shoulders, and in that case instead of 
being fastened to a post some movable object, such as a 
buffalo skull, is tied to each cut.^ 



SEC, 122. INITIATION. 243 

If the aspirant should find that the trial is too severe 
for him, he will be untied, at his own request, but then 
lie falls into disgrace, becomes a man-squaw, without the 
right of marrying, of holding property, of carrying arms, 
of participating in the public assemblies, or of associating 
with the warriors. Among six hundred southern Chey- 
€nnes, only one failed to go through the initiation with 
success. 

The aborigines of New England have their system of 
torture for admission into the warrior class,* and so have 
the Kolushes of British Columbia,^ and the Muras of 
South America.^ A Californian tribe beats the aspirant 
with nettles and compels him to sit down on a nest of 
angry ants which bite him cruelly.^ Among the Mun- 
drucus, he must thrust his arm into a tube full of irritated 
and venomous ants.® In the land of the Payaguas® and 
in portions of Australia,^® and Central America," the 
young man is required to submit to painful piercings 
with thorns and cuttings with knives. Cruel trials are 
imposed on youths by the Caribs^^ and by certain Arab 
tribes.^^ In Dongola there are bitter duels with whips 
of hippopotamus hide, until one of the duellists falls 
exhausted by the loss of blood.^* The Kaffirs,^^ Aro- 
waks,^^ Mundrucus" and aborigines of Guiana^® have 
severe switchings for youths. If a Bishareen boast of 
liis courage, a hearer may draw out a knife and cut 
long gashes in his arms shoulders and sides, whereupon 
the boaster must do likewise or be disgraced. ^^ 

In New Britain, two masked men called dukduks, 
clothed with a sacred office, come about once in twa 
months into every village and give cruel beatings to all 
the men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-three. 
For two weeks in succession, these young men are called 



244 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

together repeatedly every day, some days as often as 
twenty times, and required to stand up and submit with- 
out complaint to a severe blow from the stiff cane of one 
dukduk an d another from the tough flexible switch of 
the other. The switch encircles the body or leg and 
cuts through the skin at every stroke. For fifteeni 
years, if he live so long, every man in New Britain is 
subject to this torture.^® 

Many tribes require the aspirants for an elective 
chieftainship to submit to severe tests of endurance. 
Thus the Galibes, a tribe of the Caribs, require him to- 
submit for six months to at least six blows daily from a 
switch that encircles his body or leg and cuts through 
the skin all the way round, at every stroke.'^^ Another 
branch of the Caribs bury the ambitious man to the 
waist in a nest of venomous ants.^^ A third tribe of the 
same family compel him to drink a large cupful of a 
strong decoction of red pepper."'^* 

These tests of endurance are so far beyond what civ- 
ilized men would submit to voluntarily, that if the 
reports were made to us by only a single witness they 
would be incredible; coming to us as they do by many 
different witnesses with an overwhelming accumulation 
of evidence, we must believe them, but with a feeling 
that there is something here almost incomprehensible. 
Accepting the statements we must draw two inferences ; 
first that these men in low culture, perhaps because of 
the greater exposure of their skins to the sun, are far 
less sensitive to physical pain than we are ; and second 
•that the reputation for courage and for firmness in sub- 
mitting to agony without complaint, is far more impor- 
tant in their mode of life than in ours. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RELIGION. 

Section 123. Spirits. — The belief that the human soul 
continues to exist, as a conscious personality, after the 
death of the body, is the beginning and foundation of 
religion. In every tribe of modern savages, it exists 
accompanied by the supposition that disembodied spirits 
take much interest in human life, and especially in that 
of their relatives ; that they have much power to aid and 
injure those living in the flesh ; that they use this power 
frequently ; and that, in its exercise, they are influenced 
by neglect and defiance, to do evil, and by worship, 
offerings and praise, to protect and to bless the living. 
*' The ghost," as Spencer says, " is the primitive type of 
the supernatural being." 

On many important points, the religious belief of the 
low savage is extremely vague.^ According to Waitz'* 
** it is a dim faith in ghosts and spirits." His opinions 
are not based on reason and evidence ; nor are they 
arranged into a complete creed, consistent in all its parts. 
He has great difficulty in explaining his belief in refer- 
ence to future life. In many cases, he considers it sac- 
rilegious to mention the names of the dead, the spirits 
of the gods, or to perform any religious ceremony in the 
presence of an alien. Of the intellectual confusion on 
such subjects, examples are furnished by some Kaffirs 

(245) 



246 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and Malagasies, who though they say the soul dies with 
the body, yet worship their ancestors, bury the dead 
with ecclesiastical rites, have priests and sorcerers, and 
treat some beasts as sacred. Practices implying belief ia 
superior invisible powers, which may be propitiated, are 
found in every tribe, whose manners, customs and intel- 
lectual condition have been fully described to us by 
intelligent observers. The assertion, that religion is 
entirely lacking in any tribe, is based on a misconception 
of the definition of the word religion, or on ignorance of 
the opinions of the community in question. It has beea 
said that the Bushmen,^ the Bongos,* the Andamanese,* 
the Arafuras,^ the Damaras,^ the Hottentots,^ some 
Malagasies,® and various tribes of Equatorial Africa have 
no faith in a future existence, and that the Fuegians the 
Juangs,^® the Latookas,^^ the Dinkas, the Wanyoros, and 
the aboriginal Californians have no religion. Yet all 
these tribes fear ghosts and have sorcerers. Belief in 
sorcery is one of the most prominent features of savage 
religion. 

The main evidence of animism or the belief in spirits^ 
among savages, is furnished by dreams, which are more- 
numerous and more vivid in low than in high culture- 
steps.^^ When the food supply is scanty, innutritions or 
unwholesome, and when life passes in the midst of a 
rapid succession of great dangers, — and such circum- 
stances are common in many tribes, — the brain becomes 
excited, and sleep abounds with vivid and fantastic visions, 
in which people are seen acting, and heard speaking, 
with great distinctness. The delirious fever of famine is 
filled with such experiences ; and so is the fever brought 
on by the voluntary fasting enjoined by many of the 
savage religions. The North American Indian boy seek- 



SEC. 124. IMAGINARY WORLD. 24/ 

ing a guardian divinity, the African priest hoping for a 
revelation of the results of a projected military expedi- 
tion, and the Siberian shaman preparing to givQ an orac- 
ular response to his chief, all abstain, for several days, 
from eating, with the utmost confidence that the brain 
will then get many impressions that would not come to 
it while the stomach had its ordinary supply of food. 

Sec. 124. Imaginary World. — This realm of spirits 
was created by the savage imagination which, according 
to Lippert, harnesses its conceptions, as if they were 
material forces, to the vehicle of human life.^ Many 
authors suppose that the fancy, unaided, is powerful 
enough to destroy life ; and that it is sufficient to account 
for the fatal results of the sacerdotal curses in Polynesia 
and Africa ; ^ though other observers assume that secret 
poison counts for much more than the imagination in 
such cases.^ 

To the enlightened man, an ordinary dream is a mean- 
ingless trick of the brain ; to the savage, it is an actual 
experience of his soul while absent from his body. Such 
a belief prevails among most of the tribes of America, 
Polynesia, and Africa.* They suppose that the phan- 
toms of the persons, seen and heard in dreams, are the 
souls of the living, absent temporarily from their bodies. 
The communications, received in dreams, are sacred. 
When they can be interpreted as prophetic, they must if 
possible, be fulfilled.^ Thus, when a man has done a 
thing in a dream, he must do it awake. Early in the 
last century, an Iroquois chief told the Governor of 
New York of a dream in which the latter gave him a 
military uniform such as was worn by a British general. 
The Briton, understanding the savage ideas of such 
dreams, said this one must be fulfilled, and he presented 



248 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

the coveted dress to the chief and at the same time told 
of a dream in which the latter had ceded to him all the 
territory between two rivers. The chief gave up the 
land but added that he would never dream with the gov- 
ernor again. As Henry Maine says, ^\ early religions are 
composed of such stuff as dreams are made of"* 

Sleep, swoons, and trances, are conditions, in which, 
according to savage opinion, the soul leaves the body. 
vSickness is attributed to the soul's habit of deserting or 
its desire to desert its tenement, or to the invasion of 
the body by a hostile soul. When sick, the Fijians, 
Caribs, Arowaks, Fantis, Loangoes, Karens and Hos 
pray the soul to remain, reproach it for wanting to go, 
bawl out to it to come back (as if it had already started) 
or employ a priest to counteract the influence of the 
imaginary sorcerer, who is trying to entice the soul away 
from the body. 

According to the faith of many tribes, every person 
has several souls. His breath is one/ his shadow 
another, and his reflection in the water a third. ^ When 
he dreams, one of his souls either pays or receives a visit.^ 
Even when awake and without his knowledge, one of 
his souls may enter the body of an enemy, attack its 
organs, and cause disease. In many countries it is 
highly impolite to tread on a man's shadow, which is 
one of his souls. So long as the body has a shadow, so 
long a soul remains in it. 

Savages generally believe that the excarnated soul 
dies after a time, either in the natural course of events or 
by violence. It may be eaten up by cannibal spirits or 
by gods. It may be slain in various ways. Since it 
revisits the living in dreams, it does not necessarily die 
with the body. With the lapse of time, its visits become 



SEC. 124. IMAGINARY WORLD. 249 

rare and finally cease. Its spiritual life has then come 
to an end. Its existence does not continue more than a 
generation or two.^** The disembodied soul of the father 
is alive, that of the great-grandfather is not.^^ Among 
the Mangenyas, the life of a spook is about as long as 
that of a material man.^^ The Hill Dyaks suppose that 
the future existence is very brief The hut where a 
death occurs, is taboo for twelve days and during that 
period is haunted by the spirit. Nothing must be taken 
from it and no outsider must enter it or speak to any of 
its occupants.^^ The Tahitians imagine that, in the 
course of time, most of the excarnated souls are eaten by 
the gods or by other souls, just as in regions occupied by 
cannibals, many of the rabble are, sooner or later, eaten 
by the warriors.^* Among the Maoris, the soul is 
destroyed when the body is eaten ^^ by cannibals; among 
the Fijians, when the man dies before marriage ; ^® among 
the Harvey Islanders, when he dies a natural death ; among 
the Hurons, when he commits suicide; among several 
North American, tribes, when he is scalped or hanged ; " 
among the Damaras, when he is eaten by wild beasts.^^ 
among the Matiamba, when his corpse is thrown into 
the water; and among the Bushmen when a fire is built 
over his grave.^^ The Fijian believes that, after death, 
he will have to fight his way into the realm of spirits 
and if defeated, his soul will die immediately and forever. 
In Guinea, immortality belongs only to those who observe 
the feasts and ceremonies of the established religion. 
The soul of the defunct Marambo husband clings to the 
neck of his widow, and before she marries again, she 
dives into a river and washes the unwelcome incumbrance 
off into annihilation.^^ When the cannibal eats his slain 
enemy he not only destroys his enemy's soul, and thus 



250 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

protects himself against spiritual persecution, but he also 
adds the spirit and courage of the dead man to his own. 
The Chavantes of South America eat the bodies of their 
children who die naturally ; ^^ and some Australians give 
the flesh of a dead child to its surviving brother, or even 
kill one child to strengthen another. 

As dreams are more frequent and more vivid in sav- 
agism than in civilized life, so also are several abnormal 
physical conditions, including clairvoyance, somnambu- 
lism, and double consciousness. High sensitives are 
numerous in many tribes, and they attribute their abnor- 
mal perceptions to the aid of spirits ; that is they accept 
a current statement which had its origin in the imagina- 
tion. Many of the phases of modern spirit manifestation 
and mediumship are found among low savages ; and in 
all cases they have no bases save delusion or trickery. 
An abnormal perception there may be often ; a supernat- 
ural communication, never. 

Sec. 125. Devout Fear. — In non-tilling culture, the 
most common faith regards the spirits as predominantly 
malignant ; as beings to be feared rather than loved, to 
be avoided rather than sought, to be propitiated rather 
than praised. Disease, death, defeat, drought, storm and 
famine are attributed to them, while health, life, victory, 
pleasant weather and abundant crops are accepted as 
coming in the ordinary course of nature. A Roman 
proverb says, " Fear first made the gods."^ According to 
the Japanese, " The gods, who do harm, must be propi- 
tiated."^ The Hebrew Scripture tells as that *' The fear 
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; " and in old 
English maxims we read that " Fear is the mother of 
devotion," and that " Man's extremity is God's oppor- 
tunity." 



SEC. 125. DEVOUT FEAR. 25 I 

In early culture, the spirits of the dead are exacting, 
jealous, revengeful and malevolent.^ The survivor tries 
to avoid them. One of the first acts of soul-worship^ is 
the abandonment of the dwelling of the deceased. The 
Lepchas and Kamtschatkans leave the hut with the corpse 
and never occupy it again ; the negroes of Duketown 
abandon it for a year ; and the Coroados and Creeks leave 
the village and its site for a year.^ There are two 
motives for abandoning the home of the dead, first to 
get beyond his reach, and second to give him undisturbed 
possession of the food supply of the district.^ The 
excarnated soul is supposed to need food and to get it 
just as the living warrior does. It is not necessary or 
customary to move for a child, a woman or a slave ; these 
have little power to hurt. The greater the rank and the 
military power of the dead, the more dangerous he is to 
the living. 

The Damaras throw the corpse out to the wolves, so 
that the soul shall be destroyed and prevented from 
returning to annoy and injure its relatives/ The corpse 
of the Siamese is taken from the hut not through the 
door, but through a hole cut for the occasion in the wall 
and then carried rapidly three times round the house, so 
that the spirit cannot find its way back. The hole in the 
wall is closed up permanently without delay, so that if it 
should come back it cannot enter. There is a supposi- 
tion that it must come in where it went out.^ A simi- 
lar idea leads some inhabitants of ancient Hindostan to 
tie the feet of the dead together, and perhaps influences 
some South Americans, when they tie the body in a sit- 
ting posture and crowd it into a clay pot before burial.' 
Sharks, crocodiles, wolves and vultures are venerated in 
many countries for their services in eating human bodies 



252 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and protecting the living against the persecution of the 
spirits. Every year the priest in the Nicobar Islands 
drives the spirits which haunt every house into a canoe, 
which he sets adrift, with its cargo, in the sea. There is 
a similar custom in the Maldive Islands.^® When a house 
has been built in New Zealand, a priest consecrates it with 
prayers and sleeps in it alone, to drive away evil spirits, 
before the owner takes possession.^^ In Hawaii and Ta- 
hiti, prayers are addressed to the spirits, begging them to 
stay away/^ The Mishuris say, " We are everywhere 
surrounded by demons ; they live in the rivers, mount- 
ains and trees ; they walk about in the dark and live in the 
winds ; we are constantly suffering from them."^' Among 
the Quaiquas, Korannas, Basutos, Oedos, Mpongwes/* 
Angolese,^^ Greenlanders,^^ Mosquitoes, Abipones," some 
Kaffirs,^^ and some Lower Californians, the only spirits 
worshiped, and perhaps the only ones recognized as ex- 
isting, are evil. Many tribes which believe also in good 
spirits, consider it useless to devote any attention to 
them, because their goodness is a mere abstinence from 
doing injury. Such are the Indians of Virginia and 
Florida/® and of many other parts of North America. 
Fear of demons is the chief feature of the religion of 
the Tinnehs and of the Katschintzo Tartars.^** A Ma- 
lagasy praying said, " Nyang, wicked and powerful, 
do not make the thunder roll over our heads. Order 
the sea to stay within its bounds. Spare, O Nyang, the 
ripening fruits ; and do not blast the blossom of the 
rice,"^^ A Lepcha of Hindostan said, ^' The good spirits 
do us no harm ; the malignant spirits who dwell in every 
rock, grove, and mountain are constantly at mischief and 
to them we must pray for they hurt us."^^ In Australia, 
Tasmania, Fiji and in many of the Polynesian islands, ^^ the 



SEC. 125. DEVOUT FEAR. 253 

night air is full of evil spirits seeking men whose souls they 
may eat.^* For fear of them the people rarely leave their 
huts at night, unless under some very urgent impulse, 
and then they carry a firebrand with which to scare 
away the demons. On the Malay peninsula, a fire to 
drive away the evil spirits is built in front of the hut 
when a child is about to be born.^^ In Iceland, a fire- 
brand is carried round the hut to protect it against the 
same enemy.^^ Before pouring out water, the Bedouin 
asks forgiveness of the efreets or evil spirits. ^^ When 
bathing, the Alfuras pray, " Let the water take sick- 
ness, fatigue and evil dreams to the evil spirits." 
On important occasions, the Dyaks propitiate the spirits 
with the head of a human victim murdered for the pur- 
pose.^^ The spirits of the dead are so malignant in 
Sumatra that the most destructive man-eating tigers are 
supposed to be possessed by them.'^^ 

An Australian priest conducting the ceremonies at a 
grave said, " The dead man has promised that if his mur- 
der should be sufficiently avenged, his spirit will not 
haunt the tribe nor cause them fear, nor mislead them 
into wrong tracks, nor bring sickness among them, nor 
make loud noises in the night."^° This language implies 
that unless appeased, the spirit would do all the mali- 
cious acts mentioned. 

Among savages generally, all evil is attributed to the 
influence, all disease and death to the possession of malig- 
nant spirits. There is no conception of, or at least no 
belief in, a natural cause for a decline of health or 
strength, or for a cessation of life. All aches are 
brought upon us by demons which have entered our 
bodies, either at the instigation of their own malevolence 
or under the control of some sorcerer. In many tribes 



254 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

it is assumed that every death is the result of witchcraft 
which can be discovered and traced to its author by a 
priest, and must be traced and avenged before the soul of 
the dead man can rest. Until satisfied, he torments his 
relatives for their neglect of duty to him. 

Epilepsy and apoplexy are attacks of malignant souls ; 
sneezes, yawns, and shudders are unsuccessful attempts 
of evil spirits to get possession of the body. In many 
savage tribes and barbarous nations as well as in some 
civilized communities, when a person sneezes, he must 
be congratulated on his escape from the demon by some 
such phrase as ''God bless you," or its equivalent. Af- 
ter he has yawned, the Arab exclaims, " I take refuge 
with Allah, from Satan the accursed," and the Tyrolese 
peasant crosses himself" A Jewish proverb which says, 
*'Open not thy mouth to Satan," doubtless had its origin 
in the same idea.^^ Among the Tongans, a sneeze by 
any person about to engage in an enterprise, is an omen 
that he will fail'^ 

Livingstone says of the people of Angola : " When 
the natives turn their eyes to the future world, they have 
a view cheerless enough of their own utter helplessness 
and hopelessness. They fancy themselves completely in 
the power of disembodied spirits, and look upon the 
prospect of following them as the greatest of misfortunes. 
Hence, they are constantly deprecating the wrath of de- 
parted souls, believing that if they are appeased, there is 
no other cause of death but witchcraft, which may be 
averted by charms."^* 

Sec. 126. Next Life. — As dreamers see the dead tak- 
ing part in the ordinary business of life, — working, play- 
ing, hunting, fighting, talking, laughing, crying, eating, 
and drinking, — so popular belief teaches that the disem- 



SEC. 126. NEXT LIFE. 255 

bodied spirits have the same wants and gratifications, 
the same pleasures and pains, the same trials and tri- 
umphs, the same occupations and amusements, the same 
affections and passions, the same loves and hates, as in 
the material life. They need food, drink, clothing, shel- 
ter, warmth, light, tools, arms, dogs, friends, slaves, and 
wives, all of which they find in the spiritual world. 
They help their living friends and hurt their foes. They 
see and recognize the souls of men whom they knew 
on earth. They bless or curse other spirits ; they frater- 
nize or fight with them. They taunt, wound, capture, 
enslave, slay, torture, scalp, roast, and eat one another, 
as if they were still in the body. 

In his new home beyond the grave, the spiritual man 
will need spiritual food, spiritual clothes, and a spiritual 
hut ; he will shoot spiritual game with spiritual arrows ; 
he will fight spiritual enemies with spiritual weapons. 
The souls of living beasts can be sent to the world of 
spirits by killing them ; and the souls of inanimate ob- 
jects can be released by breaking them. If the killing or 
breaking be done at the grave of the man recently dead, 
he is placed in possession of the spirits of the tools, 
beasts, or slaves there released. 

As the future life is to be a continuation of this one, so 
the chieftainship, nobility, distinction as a warrior, and 
any notable characteristic of a man on earth will also be- 
long to him in the skies. The Fijian or Tahitian chief 
will have as many subjects and servants there as here, 
and all the enemies slain by a Karen here, will be his 
slaves there.^ In Cochin China, the poor people will 
not celebrate the annual feast of the dead on the same 
day with the rich for fear that the spirits of the rich, be- 
ing then on the lookout, and being more powerful, will 



256 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

appropriate the presents, and, besides, will enslave the 
poor spirits.^ The Kaffir prays to the spirit of his dead 
chief to compel the ancestor of the worshiper to bless 
and protect his descendant.* 

According to the creed of niany tribes, the soul lives 
forever in the condition of the man at the time of his 
death. If he was then deaf, blind, lame, toothless, or de- 
crepit with age, so his soul will be forever. A man 
killed in the dark remains in darkness forever. Age 
does not advance there, but he who has grown very old 
here, will continue to be senile there. The other life 
being higher in dignity than this one, the warriors in 
many tribes have no desire to live here beyond the age of 
forty or forty-five. When Wilkes visited the Fiji group, 
about 1840, he found no aborigine that seemed to have 
passed his fortieth year. It was the duty of the son to 
slay the father, though he sometimes waited until the 
latter requested this favor. The Vateans bury their par- 
ents alive;* the Chippeways strangle or otherwise de- 
spatch their relatives soon after the decline of life begins. 

In various tribes, the spirit stays near its home in the 
flesh, or near its grave. In other tribes, it lives in a dis- 
tant realm of souls, and occasionally revisits its relatives 
and its former abode.^ In Polynesian groups, composed 
of small islands, the spirit home is in islands to the west- 
ward ; in large islands and continents containing moun- 
tains, the world of spirits is in the mountains, as it was in 
Greece in Mt. Olympus. 

The belief that brutes and inanimate objects have 
souls which accompany the spirits of men in a future life 
though accepted by savages generally,® is not found 
among the Australians, Tasmanians, Andamanese, Fue- 
gians, and Bushmen ;^ and among these tribes mentioned 



SEC. 127. BURIAL, ETC. 25/ 

is lacking, perhaps, because their stock of accumulated 
property is so exceedingly scanty that they have nothing 
to offer to the dead. The lack of material for offerings 
may have prevented the establishment of a custom that 
would gradually have impressed the faith on the public 
mind. 

Sec. 127. Burial, etc. — The disposal of the corpse 
belongs to the domain of religion. In many countries it 
gives occasion to the highest expression of religious 
feeling. Among the Eskimos, Kamtschatkans, coast 
Chookchees, Mahenge and Wahebe, the body is thrown 
out to be devoured by wild beasts, and the surviving 
relatives, when passing near the remains, show no signs 
of grief There is reason to believe that the prehistoric 
cave dwellers in Europe treated their dead in the same 
manner. Some tribes say that if the body is eaten by 
wild beasts, its spirit will be destroyed and thus will be 
prevented from returning to persecute the living. Those 
tribes which have outgrown this fear of persecution are 
careful to preserve the corpses of their relatives, or at 
least of their warriors, against desecration by wild beasts. 

Among the reverential modes of disposing of the 
dead, customary among savages, are burial, burning, 
keeping on high platforms or on steep rocky points in 
the open air, and embalming. Of these, burial is the 
most extensively prevalent. It exists in Polynesia, 
Melanesia, Africa, and much of America. In New South 
Wales the young are burned and the old buried ; in por- 
tions of California, both cremation and burial are used. 

The treatment of the corpse depends in many regions, 

on the station of the person in life. Slaves, women and 

children are thrown out to the beasts, by tribes which 

bury the common warrior in a shallow grave, and the 

n 



258 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

chief in a deep grave or under a mound. The Daho- 
mans, Fantees and some other African tribes bury the. 
dead man in his hut, which is then abandoned as a dwell- 
ing, though it is visited occasionally by mourners and 
worshipers. Where the huts are built with little labor, 
as in Kaffraria, the village, in which a prominent man 
has died, is abandoned. 

In Angola, the corpse is buried only a few inches 
deep in the hut of its owner, and a fire is kept burning 
over it for a month. At the end of that period the remains , 
having been reduced to a dry condition, are exhumed and 
kept as a mummy in the hut for two years, and then they 
are finally buried. In New Zealand, after a body has 
been in the ground eight months, the bones are dug up, 
cleaned and buried again. On the eastern coast of Mad- 
agascar, the corpse is suspended in a hut until the bones 
fall apart and then they are buried. 

West of the Mississippi a common custom is to sew 
up the corpse in a buffalo skin and lay it on a rude flooi* 
of poles about ten or fifteen feet above the ground, sup- 
ported by posts or the limbs of a tree.^ Some tribes, 
after having thus disposed of a corpse, pay no further at- 
tention to it ; others bury the bones, when the flesh has 
decayed. The Redmen on the banks of the lower Co- 
lumbia put their dead on top of steep rocky points, or on 
elevated platforms. In the Shir valley, the corpse is 
wrapped in a mat and suspended in a tree or in the 
deserted hut of the owner. 

In Usekke,^ the corpse of a chief having been set 
upright in a hollow tree is attended day and night by 
men of his tribe, who pour beer over him in the day 
and make loud lamentation at night until putrefaction is 
far advanced ; then the remains are put on an elevated 



i 



SEC. 128. MOURNING. 259 

platform and kept there until nothing remains save the 
bones, which are finally buried. The Okinagins bind 
the body to the trunk or branch of a tree with such 
wrappings as to keep the bones in place long after the 
flesh has disappeared. In parts of Melanesia, the corpse 
is placed in a canoe and launched in an inlet when the 
tide begins to ebb so as to be carried out to sea. 

The Tahitians embalm their chiefs and great nobles. 
They take out the brains and intestines, oil the body all 
over every day, and keep it in the sun turning it fre- 
quently, until it dries so that it will keep for several years. 
After the head has separated from the body, the skull is 
cleaned and kept for family worship, and the other 
remains are buried. In Virginia and New Guinea, the 
body of a brave warrior is dried before a fire and kept for 
years. 

In some countries, before burning or burying, the 
corpse is bent at the hips, knees and elbows so that it 
can be tied together in a compact form ; in others the 
backbone is broken, to facilitate the process of tying 
together. 

Most tribes in their burials pay no regard to the points 
of the compass, but the Samoans and Fijians, believing 
that the land of spirits is in the west, bury their corpses 
in a nearly horizontal position with the feet and face 
towards the evening sun. The Winnebagoes turn the 
face to the west, and put the body in a sitting position. 
A similar position is customary with the face to the east 
among the Yumanas and the Australians. 

Sec. 128. Mourning. — General custom demands much 
demonstration of grief from the relatives of the dead 
warrior, and especially from the women. The methods 
of mourning include loud lamentation, shaving the 



26o A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

head, smearing the scalp and face with black pitch or 
paint, breaking out teeth, amputating a finger joint and 
cutting gashes in the flesh with a knife or whip. In 
some tribes the wailing is not limited to the interval 
between the death and the burial, but is repeated for 
years whenever a woman relative passes near the grave. 
In portions of Africa, Australia and North America, the 
mother carries the corpse, skeleton or wooden image of 
her child, and the widow carries the skull of her husband 
with her for months or years, and frequently talks and 
offers food to it. The show of grief sometimes takes the 
form of frenzy, as if reason had been dethroned. In 
Tahiti and Ashantee, the death of the head chief is a 
signal for a reign of anarchy in which all kinds of crimes 
are committed. Among the Gonds, at such a time, the 
ordinary laws of sexual propriety are suspended. To 
demonstrate his sorrow for the death of his mother, a 
Kaffir chief slaughtered several thousand subjects.^ 

The mourners for a Samoan chief sit at his grave tor 
ten days, and keep a fire constantly burning there during 
that period. The Nez Perce mourners dance and sing 
every day at the grave of their chief for thirty days. 
The Chippeway mourners maintain a fire at the grave 
for four days, at the end of which time they say his soul 
has reached the spirit world.^ 

Teeth are broken out among the Pacific islanders and 
some negro tribes. Cutting until the blood flows freely 
is common in Polynesia, Melanesia, North America, and 
parts of Africa. The Maoris make the marks durable by 
rubbing in charcoal.^ The mourning cuts of the Ton- 
gans are made on the body under the armpits, on the in- 
side of the thighs, and through the cheeks. The Flat- 
heads cut out pieces of flesh ;* and the Hawaiians some- 



SEC. 128. MOURNING. 26 1 

times gouge out eyes. The amputation of a finger joint 
is fashionable mourning among the Redmen and Poly- 
nesians, and after two joints have been taken from each 
little finger, it is sufficient to cut off the end of a stump 
so that it looks as if freshly amputated. In Guiana the 
young men nearly related to or intimately friendly with 
the deceased must engage in duels with switches, which 
cut through the skin and cause much loss of blood. 

The mourning among the Indian tribes west of the 
Mississippi after the death of a chief is thus described by 
Dodge : " The quiet rivalry of attention to his wants 
heretofore [while living] displayed by them [his wives] 
gave place to a furious rivalry in demonstrations of grief 
All howl continuously and in unison ; but lest the more 
strongly lunged should obtain advantage in this exercise, 
they continue the rivalry in such acts of self-abasement 
and self-torture as are almost incredible. The hair is 
hacked off, the clothing torn from the person ; ghastly, 
horrible, and even dangerous wounds are inflicted ; their 
breasts are slashed open, their arms and legs slit and cut 
with knives ; their faces and persons disfigured ; and, 
covered with blood and dust and filth, they croon and 
wail and howl until nature is exhausted. It is only won- 
derful that death does not more frequently ensue from 
these self-inflicted tortures, for the women appear to be 
perfect maniacs for the time, and cut and slash them- 
selves without regard to consequences."^ 

At the funeral of Finau I., king of Tonga, one of the 
chief mourners among the warriors said, *' Finau, I know 
your thought ; you went to Pulotu supposing your peo- 
ple were not loyal to you ; that I and others were not 
faithful to you ; but where is the evidence ? Where is 
the least sign that we were not devoted? [Here he 



262 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

struck himself with his club.] Is not that proof of my 
sincerity ? [Here he struck himself again.] Does not 
that show my attachment to you, my beloved warrior 
and king?'" 

Sec. 129, Soul Worship. — Among people who believe 
that disembodied spirits have the power to help and hurt 
the living, and the desire to be propitiated by gifts and 
praise, there is no distinct line of separation between 
mourning and worship. Lamentation for death, and 
sepulture or cremation, according to the customary rites, 
are obligatory not merely out of regard to the feelings 
and interests of the surviving relatives, but are necessary 
for the welfare of the dead, who, without these attentions, 
cannot be happy in the world of spirits, and in some 
tribes cannot even reach it. The Polynesians, Brazilians, 
Karens, many Redmen, and some Australians, believe 
that the dead has no rest until the body has been dis- 
posed of with the established ceremonies. 

In the Tahitian Islands, the attainment of future life 
by the dead man depends on a proper burial, for which 
it is indispensable that a pig roasted whole and some 
vegetables should be placed in the grave with the corpse. 
After this has been done, the male head of the family, 
standing at the side of the grave, says, " I loved you in 
your life ; I tried to cure you in your illness ; but now 
that you are dead, take these presents with you, so that 
you can gain admittance to the dwellings of the gods. 
Do not return to persecute us." The grave is then filled 
up and the dead is supposed to be at rest, unless, within 
a few days a cricket is heard near the grave. If so, the 
noise is attributed to the unhappy soul whereupon this 
lament is howled, " Oh, our brother ! his soul has not 
been admitted into the company of the gods ; he is hun- 



SEC. 129. SOUL WORSHIP. 263 

gry ; he is cold." Then additional offerings are made to 
him. If the body is not properly buried, the spirit comes 
back to torment the neglectful relatives, and to attack 
and kill any man found out of doors in the darkness.^ 
These ideas are not unhke those of the Brahmins who 
teach that when the sacrifices to the deceased are not 
made properly by the descendants, the ancestors lose 
their places in the higher sphere and must be born 
again on earth. ^ The Greeks also considered the con- 
ventional funeral rites indispensable for the repose of the 
souls of the dead. 

It is assumed that the excarnated spirits are pleased 
with such gifts and honors as are paid to chiefs, and 
these are therefore rendered with the expectation of re- 
ward by direct divine favor, including protection against 
material and immaterial enemies. In many cases the ad- 
oration is suggested by sincere affection for the dead rel- 
ative or chief, but is accompanied by a confident expec- 
tation of positive reward or of negative exemption from 
evil. At the grave of his ancestor, the New Caledonian 
prays, " Compassionate father, here is some food ; be 
kind to us on account of it."^ When he sacrifices an ox 
to his ancestors, the Zulu prays, "Ye spirits of my peo- 
ple, here is your bullock ; here is your food. Bless me 
with health and comfort. Father bless and protect me. 
Grandfather bless and protect me." He names the an- 
cestors from whom he expects favors.* 

In many tribes the fear of the disembodied souls is ac- 
companied by a careful avoidance of every mention of 
their names. They are too august to be referred to ex- 
cept by some paraphrase. They are offended by famil- 
iarity ; and a direct or indirect call to them attracts their 
attention and brings them into dangerous proximity. 



264 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

The tilling savage frequently addresses formal prayers 
to his divinities, beseeching them to stay away from his 
village, to consume the offerings placed on their graves, 
to give help in hunting, fishing, or war ; to avert disease, 
or to cure the sick. He does not pray that he shall be 
made better morally or that his soul shall be fitted for 
the companionship of noble spirits in a future life. 

There are savage regions, where the man prays every 
morning when he rises from his bed, before eating or 
drinking ; and at the commencement of every important 
enterprise. The Natchez Indians prayed at least three 
times a day.^ At all temples and sacred places where 
priests reside as custodians, prayers are said every morn- 
ing, and on the occasion of every sacrifice. In the Tahi- 
tian temples, the priests, at the commencement of their 
adorations, pray the gods to wake up and listen to the 
solicitations of their worshipers. 

In Fiji, when the water is to be poured on the ava, in 
preparation for drinking, a herald cries out, '* Prepare a 
libation to the chiefs who died on the water or on the 
land. Be gracious, ye lords, ye gods, that the rain may 
come."^ Before a Samoan nobleman takes his evening 
drink of ava, he pours out a few drops to the spirits, and 
prays, "Here is ava for you, O ye sea gods; stay 
away from us."^ The following is a Huron prayer : "O 
thou god, who dwellest in this spot, accept this tobacco ; 
help us on our voyage ; save us from shipwreck ; de- 
fend us from our enemies ; give us a prosperous trade 
and bring us back safe to our village." 

Before the god, as before the despotic chief, the man 
assumes an attitude of submission. Captives in war 
throw themselves flat upon the ground, and are taken 
with hands bound before the chief, and compelled to 



\ 



SEC. 130. TOTEMISM. 265 

kneel before him until he decides their fate; and so the 
worshiper lies down, or kneels with uplifted hands.^ 
In some tribes, the subject when entering the chiefs 
house must wear no clothing under which a club can be 
concealed, and the worshiper must enter the temple with 
his head or his feet, and in some places with the upper 
part of his body bare. 

The postures in prayer are far from uniform. The 
most singular is that attributed by rumor to the Dokos, 
for they have never been observed by an intelligent trav- 
eler in their own country. It is said that when they 
pray, they stand on their heads and rest their feet against 
a tree or rock.^ 

Sec. 130. Totemism. — Totemism, the worship, by a 
community, of a guardian spirit which makes its home in 
some natural object or phenomenon, is a feature of soul- 
worship. It has its origin, and reaches its highest devel- 
opment in the feminine clan, of which it is an essential 
element. It exists among the non-tilling Australians ; it 
is prominent among the tilling Redmen. Most clans 
which have totems, have no regular system of clan wor- 
ship. They recognize their totem as sacred ; they do 
not kill, hurt, or eat it ; they treat it in action and speech 
with reverence ; but they pay no further attention to it. 

The survivals of totemism in religion are found over a 
large part of the earth. In portions of Polynesia, the 
gods or guardian spirits are conceived as brutes.^ Ser- 
pents were worshiped by the Aztecs, Quichuans, Caribs, 
ancient Egyptains and Babylonians, as they are by many 
Africans.^ 

The ancestral spirits sometimes pass into brutes which 
then become sacred. The Sumatrans believe that tis^ers 
are possessed by the souls of human beings.^ In Cala- 



266 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

bar, crocodiles are supposed to enjoy a similar honor/ 
In Tlascala, the souls of nobles enter into beautiful birds ; 
those of the rabble into small quadrupeds and beetles.^ 
The Zulus say their ancestors have changed themselves 
into serpents.® The Kamtschatkans pray to the wolves 
and bears;^ the Chippeways and Ostyaks beg pardon of a 
bear for killing him ; and the Kaffirs, Dyaks, Sumatrans, 
Kukis, and some Arab tribes, after killing a large wild 
animal, propitiate its spirit by a feast in its honor.® It is 
supposed, by many tribes, that sorcerers can convert 
themselves at will into carnivorous beasts.' 

The Congoese and Damaras,^" and land Dyaks,^^ have, 
sacred trees before which they make offerings of food 
and drink to the spirit occupants. The date palm 
was sacred to the Assyrians,^^ coca to the Quichuans,^* 
and soma to the ancient Hindoos and Persians, as 
ava is to the Polynesians, and tobacco to the Redmen 
east of the Mississippi. 

Sec. 131. Fetishism. — A step higher than totemism in 
the growth of religion is fetishism, or devotion to a nat- 
ural, or rudely-shaped artificial object, as the abode of 
the special guardian spirit of the devotee. The totem is 
the divinity of a clan ; the fetish is that of an individual. 
The non-tilling Australians, Tasmanians, and Lower 
Californians have risen to the conception of the former 
and not of the latter. The tilling Redmen have both. 
Among the latter every youth must select his fetish or 
'' medicine " before he reaches his eighteenth year. He 
must go off into some place where he will probably see 
no human being, and there must stay, abstaining from all 
food and drink, until in a dream, he sees an animal or 
plant suitable for his fetish. Then he can return to his 
village and eat. So soon as possible he must obtain a 



SEC. 131. FETISHISM. 26/ 

sample of his fetish, get it or part of it in a portable and 
durable form, attach it to a string, carry it round his 
neck, and never part with it. Its loss means disgrace 
and ruin to him. He must be faithful to it so long as 
he lives. He prays to it, makes offerings to it, and 
attributes to it all his success in life. If his fetish be 
an animal, he must not kill or hurt any of its species. 
In his religion, it is much more prominent than his 
totem. 

The fetish of the negro is selected without fasting, 
dreaming, or long consideration, and may be changed 
repeatedly. In many cases it is a stone or shell selected 
because of something striking in its color or shape. It 
may be carried on the person, or kept in the hut. The 
worshiper decorates it, sets offerings before it, and prays 
to it ; but his devotion is usually measured by his suc- 
cess. If he should be overtaken by misfortunes, he not 
unfrequently strips the ornaments from his fetish, curses 
it, defiles it, whips it, and throws it out as useless rub- 
bish. Then he is ready to install another in its place. ^ 

If a negro has been very successful in some difficult 
enterprise, the result is attributed to the aid of a mighty 
fetish ; if on the contrary he has failed ignominiously, 
people say he has a very weak fetish. When Captain 
Tuckey was exploring the lower Congo, a native chief 
told him that his fetish would kill anyone who shot at 
it ; and thereupon the Englishman offered to shoot at it. 
This offer was accepted, but before the shot was fired, the 
chief withdrew his acceptance, for the reason that Tuckey 
had the more powerful fetish, and that the chief after his 
fetish had been defeated and discredited, would be at- 
tacked and plundered by his neighbors. 

Some Redmen regard special trees as their fetishes, 



268 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

decorate them with strips of bright cloth, hang pieces of 
meat as offerings on the boughs, and occasionally climb 
up into the branches and there sing songs of praise to 
the spirit. 

Every guardian spirit, not ancestral, partakes of the 
nature of fetishism. When a Samoan child is to be 
born, the names of various gods are called out in succes- 
sion at brief intervals, and the one last mentioned before 
the birth is the guardian.^ In part of Mexico, under 
similar circumstances, the figures of various animals 
are drawn on the ground and rubbed out, and the one 
visible at the time of parturition is the patron divinity.' 

Some tribes of Northern Asia have a form of fetishism 
known as shamanism, in which the spirits dwelling in 
natural objects are the friends or servants of shamans or 
fetishistic priests.* Laymen cannot communicate di- 
rectly with the invisible powers but must do so through 
the priests, who have an imposing ceremonial with 
which they gain the faith and tribute of the multitude. 

It was under the influence of fetishism, that in the last 
century, the Norwegian peasants had a custom of bring- 
ing into the house any stone of remarkably handsome 
shape, and treating it as a fetish. They anointed it with 
butter, wet it with ale, and expected it to bring them 
luck in reward for their attention. Some of the Irish in 
our own century have had similar observances.^ 

All fetish worshipers distinctly understand that their 
devotions are paid to the spirit residing in the material 
object. The conception of the soul, as distinct from the 
body, is as clear to them as to any civilized theologian. 
Certain African tribes will not accept a fetish until a 
priest has consecrated it with his mummeries and thus 
introduced a divinity. In the conception of their sacred- 



SEC. 132. ANCESTOR WORSHIP. 269 

ness, such fetishes differ little from the amulets, worn in 
many Christian countries. 

Sec. 132. Ancestor Worship. — After the masculine 
clan had been established, men began to pay their devo- 
tions to their male ancestors in the direct male line ; and 
for a long period this ancestor worship was the most 
wide-spread and most prominent feature of religion. It 
is universal among tilling tribes with masculine descent ;^ 
it prevailed among the ancient Egyptains, Greeks, Ro- 
mans, Teutons, Gauls,^ and Persians, and it exists now 
among the Brahmins, Chinese, and Japanese. That it 
was known to the ancient Hebrews is implied by a verse 
in Deuteronomy, requiring the person, who makes an of- 
fering, to declare that it is not for the dead.^ 

With the recognition of the ancestor as the chief ob- 
ject of devotion, the spirit and the method of worship 
changed. Affection and confidence succeeded to doubt 
and fear ; vagueness gave way to clearness in the con- 
ception of the divinity ; and the domestic fire, the grave 
of the ancestor, the hut over his tomb, and the temple 
developed out of it, became the scenes of ceremonies 
that grew more elaborate and more imposing. The 
male of the family was the priest of the domestic worship. 
He represented not himself only, but also those who 
went before and those who had come or were to come 
after him. He recited prayers ; he chanted hymns ; he 
made offerings of food, drink, clothes, weapons, tools, 
flowers, and incense; he sacrificed beasts, slaves, and 
wives. The principal site of this worship is the kitchen 
hearth. The household fire is the favorite dwelling 
place of the ancestral spirits.* 

It is a common practice to chant the praises of the de- 
ceased at his funeral,^ and in some tribes, the relatives 



2/0 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

repair daily for weeks, to the grave at sunrise and sunset, 
to repeat their songs ; or they repeat them whenever 
they pass near the grave, in the period of mourning.^ 
They also offer prayers there. The chief is regarded as 
the father of the village, clan, or tribe, and after his 
death everyone of his subjects can apply to his spirit for 
aid.' 

In systematic ancestral worship, the divinity and the 
worshiper are always males. Women have no share in 
this religion. They must preserve and guard the fire, 
but they cannot offer acceptible sacrifices nor make po- 
tent prayers. The blood requisite for sacerdotal func- 
tions does not run in their veins. They live without di- 
vine communication ; they are buried without ceremony. 

Sec. 133. Offerings. — The spirits and gods to whom 
offerings are made, consume not the material substance 
but the spiritual essence. The food placed on the grave 
or in the temple is enjoyed by the resident spirit, just as 
a saddle of venison would be eaten by the warrior in 
whose tent it had been hung up. The dead have their 
homes, and their property rights. Food for the soul is 
placed near the corpse before or after burial, by the 
Polynesians, Micronesians, Melanesians, Brazilians, Ka- 
rens, Redmen, and Africans. In most tribes, the provis- 
ions are supplied for only a day or two. The belief pre- 
vails that, after the spirit has become familiar with its 
new home, it can supply its wants with less effort than it 
could in the material life. But even after it can obtain 
sufficient food by its own exertion, it likes to be invited 
to an occasional feast by its surviving relatives. The 
Tahitians touch the lips of the corpse several times daily 
with food. The Mosquito widow carries food to the 
grave of her husband, at intervals for a year.^ The Ka- 



SEC. 133. OFFERINGS. 2/1 

rens of Northern Bengal, and the Bareas of Eastern Africa 
have an annual feast at which food is set out for the 
dead.^ The ancient Persians, Gauls, and Romans, the 
Aztecs and Quichuans had, and the Chinese now have, 
this custom. The food should be of the most savory 
kind, and in amount equal to the quantity that the per- 
son ate at a meal when alive. Fermented drinks and 
narcotics are also needed by the spirits, and are supplied 
to them. In Bonny, where the corpse is buried under 
the hut, which the family continues to occupy, the man 
must not start out in the morning without pouring a li- 
bation of beer down a pipe that leads into the coffin.' 
As the spirit eats only the essence of the offering, the 
preservation of the material substance of the food is not 
necessary ; and some tribes after presenting their offering 
at the grave, burn it there. Thus the Nootka Indians 
burn salmon and venison at the grave.* Other tribes, 
after giving the spirits a chance to enjoy the essence of 
the offering, themselves eat the substance. 

Offerings of food to the spirits are often made at the 
commencement of a meal. A bit of meat is thrown into 
the fire or on the ground, and some drops of any favor- 
ite beverage are poured out, with a reverent air, and 
with or without an invocation to the spirits. In Samoa, 
it is sufficient to wave the cup towards the heavens, thus 
giving the spirits the first opportunity to drink. ^ 

As the soul needs food in its new home, so it needs 
clothes, weapons, ornaments, and servants. The Pata- 
gonians open the graves once a year to put in new gar- 
ments for the dead.^ As the food may be burned to lib- 
erate its essence, so the weapon or jug may be broken,^ 
or the clothes may be torn at the grave ; but they must 
be in a good condition when taken there. 



2/2 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Sec. 1 34. Sacrifices. — Since the body of the man must 
die before his soul can estabhsh itself in the world of 
spirits, so the dog or horse that is to accompany him 
and serve him there, must be slain. There are various 
methods of despatching the animals, the most common 
being those used when slaughtering for the table. The 
Moluches tie a horse to a stake at the grave and let him 
starve to death. The pig destined, to feed the Vatean 
spirit is tied to the wrist of the corpse and then killed, 
the tying being intended to show ownership and to pre- 
vent other spirits from claiming the food.^ In Greenland, 
a dog's head is buried with the child to serve as a 
guide and companion for the little one in crossing the 
dark place on the way to the world of light.^ The Todas 
kill all a man's cattle at his burial.^ Among the tribes 
which sacrifice animals at the grave, are the Patagonians,* 
Araucans,^ Charruas,^ Mbayas,^ Abipones, Comanches, 
Pawnees, Chinooks, Walla Wallas, Kaffirs, Fipas, Wa- 
gogos, Yakoots, and Kirghiz. This custom continued 
long after man had risen above savagism, and existed 
among the barbarous Gauls, Teutons, and Aztecs. In 
1 78 1, a horse was slain at a burial in Germany. The 
sacrifice of animals and slaves has its survival in the Jap- 
anese custom of putting little images of beasts and men 
on the graves, and in the Chinese custom of burning pa- 
per figures of such sacrifices. 

Blood being regarded as intimately associated with the 
life, is the most precious part of the sacrifice, and is con- 
sidered especially acceptable to the spirits. It must be 
put upon the altar, or smeared over it, or over the faces 
and especially the mouths of the idols. 

Among savages, as among people in more advanced 
culture, the meat offered in sacrifice, may afterwards be 



SEC. 135. HUMAN SACRIFICES. 2/3 

eaten by men. If the sacrifice be made in a temple, cus- 
tom determines how much belongs to the worshiper and 
how much to the priest, and each may carry away and 
eat or sell his share. The temple becomes a slaughter 
house ; the priests are dealers in butcher's meat. The 
givers of liberal gifts are treated as persons secure of di- 
vine favor ; those who are unable or unwilling to make 
sacrifices are represented as proper objects of divine 
wrath. 

Sec. 135. Human Sacrifices. — The same reasons which 
suggested the sacrifice of animals at graves, led to the 
sacrifice of human beings there. This custom has ex- 
isted in recent or modern times amongf the Iddahs,^ 
Bakutos/ Wanyoros/ Bafiotes,* Congoese,^ Yorubas,® 
Ashantees, Dahomans,^ Kafifirs,® Dakotas, Chinooks, 
Guaranis, Fijians, New Caledonians, Aneitums, Tongans, 
Hawaiians, and Tahitians. Custom in Unyoro requires 
that with the deceased head chief, several hundred per- 
sons, after their legs and arms have been broken, shall 
be buried alive.^ Not many generations have elapsed 
since ten slave girls were slain and put into the grave 
with the corpse of the wife of a Kaffir chief The cere- 
mony of sacrificing servants to accompany a deceased 
head chief in Bambarra, is thus described by Cameron :^® 
" The first proceeding is to divert the course of a stream, 
and in its bed to dig an enormous pit, the bottom of 
which is then covered with living women. At one end 
a woman is placed on her hands and knees, and upon 
her back the dead chief, covered with his beads and 
other treasures, is seated, being supported on either side 
by one of his wives, while his second wife sits at his feet. 
The earth is then shoveled in on them, and all the 
women are buried alive with the exception of the second 
18 



2/4 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

wife. To her, custom is more merciful than to her com- 
panions, and grants her the privilege of being killed be- 
fore the huge grave is filled in. This being completed, a 
number of male slaves, sometimes forty or fifty are 
slaughtered and their blood poured over the grave ; after 
which the river is allowed to resume its course. 'Stories 
are rife that no fewer than a hundred women were buried 
alive with Bambarre Kasongo's father." In the lower 
part of the valley of the Columbia river, when the daugh- 
ter of a chief dies, the corpse is put in a canoe on a high 
rock or island, and tied to her, and bound hand and foot, 
is a live slave girl, who is strangled on the third day. 

In many tribes, public opinion requires the wives and 
favorite slaves to accompany the husband and master in 
death ; and many of the victims accept the sacrifice will- 
ingly, partly, perhaps, because if they could escape, they 
would become outcasts. From those provinces of Hin- 
dostan, where suttee was prohibited, in this century, wid- 
ows of Brahmins were for a time in the habit of accom- 
panying the corpses of their husbands into other prov- 
inces, where they could be burned. The fear of life-long 
disgrace may control some, while others count confi- 
dently on relative happiness in the world of spirits as 
compensation for their obedience to the sacerdotal com- 
mands in this material sphere. The custom of slaying 
wives on the grave of the husband is common among 
savage tribes that have risen above the feminine clan. 

Human sacrifices in religious worship existed among 
the Polynesians, Micronesians, and Melanesians gener- 
ally, among many African, and some American, Malay- 
sian, and Hindoo savages, as well as among the barbar- 
ous Aztecs, Quichuans, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Jews, 
Persians, Gauls, and Teutons, and the civilized ancient 



SEC. 135. HUMAN SACRIFICES. 2/5 

Greeks and Romans. When the Polynesians held great 
festivities and sought to make themselves especially dear 
to the gods, and when in times of serious public disaster, 
they wished to give solemnity to the general lamentation 
and to propitiate the offended divinities, men were slain in 
the temples. Human sacrifices to the gods of agricult- 
ure are or have been made by the Khonds,^^ Nagas,^^ 
Lagos,^^ Congoese/* and Pawnees. The tribe last named 
sacrificed a captive Dakota girl in 1837. After they had 
shot many arrows into her body, and while she was still 
alive, they cut pieces of flesh from her body and squeezed 
out the blood on the newly-planted hills of maize.^'' Since 
the time when the Khonds have been forbidden to propi- 
tiate the gods by human sacrifices, they make cakes of 
dough or clay in the shape of men, and cut off their 
heads.^^ A human sacrifice is offered by the Yorubas 
when they start out on a military expedition,^^ by the 
Kimbaras when they install a new chief,^® by the Wanika 
when they admit a party of young men into the rank of 
the warriors,^® and by the Fijians when they launch a ca- 
noe or when they congratulate a young prince upon 
reaching the age of manhood.^^ In 1861, B. Seeman per- 
suaded the head chief of Fiji to spare about five hundred 
inhabitants of a rebellious village, whose sacrifice had 
been ordered, for the purpose of giving lustre to a festival 
in honor of the arrival of his eldest son at his majority. 
Ancient custom had provided that at the most import- 
ant moment of the ceremony, the prince should stand on 
the breast of a prostrate living slave, lying on the apex 
of a pyramid of corpses of men slain for the occasion.^^ 
The most extensive recent human sacrifices have been 
those of Dahomey and Ashantee, in each of which coun- 
tries, the annual number of victims was not less than two 



276 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

hundred, and according to some authorities, much larger. 
In the former country, the sacrifices are made in consid- 
erable numbers at a few festivals and especially on the 
anniversary of the death of the last king, when a feast of 
blood is set out for the souls of the royal family. la 
Ashantee, a human victim is sacrificed on each of seven 
days out of eight so that there are about three hundred 
and twenty in a year. In Florida the first born son was 
sacrificed to the sun, and children were sacrificed to the 
spirits in New England, Virginia, and Dakota.^^ At 
Benin, a young woman is lashed to a platform on a tall 
tree to be eaten by vultures ; and the Bonny fishermen 
tie a human victim to a stake, between low and high tide, 
so that when the water rises, a shark may come in and 
eat him.^^ The gods occupy the bodies of these vultures 
and sharks. Among the tribes which have continued to 
sacrifice human victims until recent times in Hindostan 
are the Oryssas.^* 

Human sacrifices in temples differ little in motive^ 
from the slaughter of wives, slaves, and friends at the 
grave of the chiefs. The two customs are intimately as- 
sociated. One provides food and the other service, for 
the gods. Both are intended to conciliate supernatural 
powers. The original suggestion of sacrifice of human 
beings is to be found in cannibalism. That meat, which 
is most costly and therefore most delightful to warriors, 
is demanded by the gods. They, like their worshipers, 
delight in the destruction of the souls of their enemies. 

Since we know that human sacrifice in religion is a 
consequence of reputable cannibalism in private life, the 
question arises why the effect did not cease with its orig- 
inal cause. It was because, in the meantime, other 
influences had become potent. Change could operate 



SEC. 135. HUMAN SACRIFICES. 2// 

much more quickly in social life than in religion. Many- 
centuries after the advance of culture had driven canni- 
balism into desuetude and discredit in tropical Polynesia, 
Carthage, Phoenicia, Persia, Greece, Rome, Gaul and 
Germany, Mexico and Peru, so many centuries that the 
tradition of the ancient custom had been forgotten, and 
the people did not suppose that their ancestors had ever 
feasted on cooked men, the custom of human sacrifices 
continued in those countries and in most of them on an 
extensive scale. The ecclesiastical custom remained the 
same but the explanation of it was different. In the 
earlier ages, the reason for the sacrifice was that as the 
spirits and gods were hungry and as human flesh was a 
luxury, so men must be sacrificed in the temples. But 
when men learned to look upon feasts of human flesh 
with disgust and horror, that explanation would no longer 
serve. The priests however, as a class, would not admit 
that they or their predecessors in office had belied the 
gods. They understood that their power and profit 
depended, to a large extent, on their success in convinc- 
ing the multitude that their gods had not changed in 
character, and that their corporation had always acted 
with divine authority. With popular credulity and gov- 
ernmental power to aid them they found no great diffi- 
culty in this task. Acting on this policy, they asserted 
that the gods never wanted to be fed on human flesh or 
blood ; that the doctrine of giving such food never was a 
material part of their ecclesiastical system ; and that the 
only purpose of the custom was to fill the people with 
the ideas that the gods were entitled to the most precious 
of all sacrifices, and that it was the duty of the worshipers 
to make the most trying of all penances with human life. 
When the priest dipped his finger into the blood of the 



2/8 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



slaughtered man and put it into his mouth that was a 
penance for him.^^ 

In New Zealand and Fiji, the most precious morsel in 
the cannibal feast was the left eye, because it was sup- 
posed to be the seat of the victim's soul, which would 
unite with and strengthen that of the eater. It was 
therefore given to the person highest in rank at the feast. 
In Tahiti and Hawaii, men had ceased to eat human flesh 
when Cook was there, but after a man was sacrificed in a 
temple, his left eye was handed to the head chief, who 
made a motion as if he would eat it and then gave it 
back to the priest. The meaning of this ceremony had 
been forgotten by the people, and the Tahitian, who 
went with Cook to New Zealand, was struck with horror 
when he saw the Maoris there eat their fellow-men. He 
did not know that his ancestors had been cannibals. 

Another class of human victims may be mentioned 
here, those sacrificed to watch or defend buildings, towns, 
or boats. In many tribes of Africa, Melanesia, and Ma- 
laysia, custom requires that under eveiy post of a town 
gate or of a chiefs dwelling, a slave, dead or alive, shall 
be buried. In portions of Melanesia, a war canoe is not 
fit for use until it has been consecrated by the slaughter 
of a slave. He may be slain so that his blood shall flow 
over and wash its upper surface, or he may be used as a 
roller and crushed to death while it is being launched. 
The spirit of the victim becomes the guardian of the 
structure.''® 

Sec. 136. Gods. — The first divinity was a disembodied 
soul, the second a male ancestor in the direct male 
line, the third a deceased chief When political organi- 
zation became compact, the able despotic ruler was re- 
garded in some sense as the father of the tribe. If he 



SEC. 136. GODS. 279 

had given a superior military training to his warriors, 
and had increased the power and wealth of his tribe, he 
would be looked upon as divine in his character. He 
would receive the adoration of his subjects. Savages 
worship easily. From man to god is a small step for 
them. It is a step that every brave warrior takes when 
he dies. 

The son and successor of a chief, who had been a great 
military leader, would perceive that the public worship 
of his father by the whole community, under the super- 
intendence of an organized priesthood, dependent on him 
for support, and scattered through the country so as to 
come in contact with all the people, would add greatly 
to his political power. It would then be his policy to 
strengthen this priesthood and to weaken every other. 
Under such influences, tribal worships and divinities 
gradually encroached upon and superseded the house- 
hold religions. In some conquering tribe, a priest em- 
ployed in the worship of a chief long dead, asserted that 
his divinity had always been a celestial spirit. This idea 
was accepted by the people because it was more worthy 
of their dignity than devotion to a disembodied human 
50ul. Thus another step was taken in the development 
of religion. 

In war, the gods are mterested as well as the men. 
If a chief carries his victories far, and understands well 
the interest of his dynasty, he takes care that his power 
shall be fortified by sacerdotal influence. A good exam- 
ple, of the union of Church and State in savagism, is 
found in the history of the Hawaiian group, every island 
of which had at least one independent chief and indepen- 
dent religion, when Kamehameha I. began his conquer- 
ing career in the last century. After his royal authority 



^80 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

had been established over the entire group, in 1795, he 
raised his family god Tairi to the position of supreme 
national divinity, moved all the idols of the local divini- 
ties to Tairi's temple, compelled all the priests to devote 
themselves to Tairi's worship, and required them to act 
as part of his police/ 

The highest conception of divinity, found among sav- 
ages, is that of the Tahitians. They have a supreme 
deity who created the universe. He also created an im- 
mense number of inferior gods, including one for every 
island, mountain, valley, planet, star, meteorological phe- 
nomenon, occupation, virtue, vice and crime. He created 
time. The year is his daughter ; her children are 
months, and her grandchildren days. The sea is the 
sweat that poured from him while he was making the 
world. The sun is his left eye and the seat of his 
soul. He pays no attention to praise or prayer. He 
leaves the management of human affairs to his subordi- 
nates. 

The spirits of savagism rejoice in the victories and con- 
quests of their worshipers, and the slaughter of their 
enemies. The excitement of battle is rapturous to them 
as it was to the divinities of ancient- Egypt and Assyria, 
of Greece and Rome, of Gaul and Germany. The sight 
of the flowing blood gives delight to the gods of Fiji, 
and to those of Tahiti.'' After he has taken a scalp, the 
Redman celebrates his success by a dance, in which he 
exhibits his trophy, and thanks his fetish for granting 
him success. 

In cannibal tribes, spirits or gods, like living men, 
delight in feasting on human flesh, and demand frequent 
human sacrifices. They drink the blood of the victims ; 
their idols must be smeared over the mouth and face 



SEC. 136. GODS. 281 

with the fresh gore. One of the gods of Fiji is called 
Brain-eater. The priests bless the cannibal feasts, par- 
ticipate in them and demand them as necessary to do 
honor to the gods. 

In many tribes, the names of the gods are sacred and 
are carefully concealed from aliens, slaves, commoners, 
women, and children — that is from all who have no right 
to participate in the divine worship. It is imagiaed that 
he who does not call out the true name of the god can- 
not get his attention or favor, and cannot make an ac- 
ceptable offering ; and that he, who has the true name, 
can get almost any favor. The Romans treated the rev- 
elation of the name of their national god, to an enemy, 
as a great crime, and they had special rituals for enticing 
the divinity of a hostile city to come over to them, and 
for installing the god of a conquered city in their pan- 
theon. 

Under ordinary circumstances, the mention of the 
name of Yahveh was forbidden to the Jews, that of Osiris 
to the ancient Egyptians, and that of Brahm to the Hin- 
doos. Many Arabs imagine that Allah is a mere title of 
the diety, that his true name is known to none save a 
few devout and learned men; and then whenever it is 
used in prayer, the favor solicited is always granted im- 
mediately. 

The change from the worship of the ancestors to that 
of the gods was not abrupt. The two religions existed 
side by side, for many ages in harmony. Between the 
household divinities and the tribal divinities, there was 
no incompatibility and scarcely any rivalry. It was not 
until men rose above savagism, that priests of tribal 
gods obtained influence enough to suppress the adoration 
of the ancestral gods. 



282 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

The savage is not a monotheist. Unless in rarely 
exceptional cases, he has no conception of a creator and 
governor of the world, of a great first cause whose effect 
is the universe with all its laws and forces and material 
parts. He has no idea that moral quality belongs to 
divine nature. He knows nothing of a deity who looks 
with equal favor on all mankind. He may learn the 
phrase '^ Great Spirit," from civilized men but he contin- 
ues to worship a disembodied soul, a fetish or tribal 
guardian spirit, and to believe in an immense number of 
divinities. 

Sec. 137. Idolatry. — Rudiments of idolatry make their 
appearance in the feminine clan, if not earlier. The Man- 
dan widow, who has had a good husband, saves his skull, 
offers food to it and talks to it, as if his spirit were there. 
The Hawaiians, Caribs and Andamanese keep the skulls 
of their dead with reverent care.^ The New Caledonians 
cherish them and make offerings to them.^ The Yuca- 
tanese made idols in which the skull of an ancestor occu- 
pied the place of the head. The Aztecs mixed the ashes 
of their noble with the clay of which they made his image 
or statue.^ While the body of the Congoese chief is in 
the hands of the embalmers, a wooden image of him is 
set up in the palace, and offerings of food and drink are 
placed before it every day.* After the burial of an Abys- 
sinian, an image of him is used in the mourning cere- 
monies,^ In portions of Melanesia, offerings are made to 
a representative idol on the grave.^ Rude images of the 
dead are placed on the graves of the Araucans, Maoris 
and some Redmen.^ The Ostyak has a wooden image of 
his deceased father in his hut, offers food to it and wor- 
ships it.® The Ostyak priest keeps the images of his male 
ancestors, in the male line, for several generations and, 



SEC. 137. IDOLATRY. 283 

besides making offerings to them, induces others to do 
so.' When a Samoyed leaves home, the domestic idol is 
turned to face the direction of his journey and thus look 
after and guard him.^° The Yoruban mother, who has 
lost a child, carries a wooden image of it, and offers food 
to it whenever she eats.^^ The image of the dead chief 
is worshiped in Hawaii.^^ As a general rule tribes which 
worship ancestors have figures representing them. 

Idolatry does not appear in the lowest tribes, but it is 
a highly effective feature of ecclesiasticism among ad- 
vanced savages. The sight of the god in human form, 
the pompous ceremonial worship before it, the show of 
devotion to it by all in authority, and the prosperity and 
power of its chief worshipers, impress the popular cre- 
dulity with the utmost confidence in the existence and 
power of the divinity and in the genuineness of the sacer- 
dotal commission. The idolaters are proud of their idol- 
atry, and despise tribes which have no idols. Although 
the Samoans have guardian spirits, and worship them 
every day with prayers and offerings, yet because they 
have no images of their gods, the idolatrous Polynesians 
contemptuously call them " the godless Samoans." ^^ In 
Tahiti some of the idols are rude billets of wood, deco- 
rated with leaves and red feathers ; others are hollow logs 
filled with red feathers. 

The idolater understands as well as the fetish wor- 
shiper, or even more clearly, that the material portion of 
the idol is not divine.^* Among the higher savages, the 
idol must always be consecrated, that is, the divinity 
must be persuaded to niake his home in it. Such in- 
stallation ceremonies are indispensable to the idol in Ta- 
hiti, Hawaii, Tonga, and Fiji." The religious ideas con- 
nected with the use of images of sacred characters in 



284 " A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

ecclesiastical affairs, are substantially the same in high 
savagism, in barbarism and in civilization. All distinc- 
tions, to show that one form of devotion to images is 
idolatrous and another is not, are mere fictions based on 
the necessity of finding excuses for adherence to the old 
forms of a discredited superstition. 

By black, yellow, and white men, in savagism, barbar- 
ism, and civilization, wherever ecclesiastical images are 
used, there the idols are dressed and decorated, and 
lamps are burned, offerings are made and prayers are 
said before them in the same spirit and with similar 
ideas. Everywhere among the worshipers, one image 
has the repute of being much more powerful than an- 
other. The Chinooks determine the relative values by 
knocking the idols together violently; the one that 
breaks first is the home of the weaker god.^^ 

Everywhere the idols are blessed in prosperity, and 
in adversity are cursed, threatened, despoiled, defiled, 
whipped, broken, and burned, or thrown away. It is so 
in Africa, Polynesia, Siberia, China, and Italy. Speaking 
of some Siberian tribes, Pallas says: " Notwithstanding 
the veneration and respect which they have for their 
idols, the latter fare badly when adversity overtakes an 
Ostyak, if prosperity does not soon return to him. He 
throws his idol on the ground, beats it, curses it, and 
breaks it into fragments. Such punishments occur fre- 
quently; and such outbursts of wrath are observed 
among all the idolatrous tribes of Siberia."^^ 

Sec. 138. Divine Intercourse. — The lives of savages 
generally are full of devotional feeling. A prayer or a 
sacrifice, to secure divine favor or to ward off wrath, 
precedes every important act. They imagine themselves 
constantly surrounded by watchful, jealous and punctil- 



SEC. 138. DIVINE INTERCOURSE. 285 

ious divinities, always ready to give them signals of dan- 
ger, to reward attention and devotion, and to punish 
neglect or deliberate impiety. Their penalties make up 
all the evil, and their rewards much of the good of life. 
To the savage whose fetish is carried on his person or 
whose guardian spirit is domiciled in his hut; who 
makes offerings of food and drink to it at every meal ; 
who, at the beginning of every day and enterprise, looks 
for the omens indicating the divine advice as to the 
course he shall pursue ; whose soul frequently, in dreams 
leaves his body to associate with excarnated spirits ; who 
puts provisions, clothing, and arms on the graves of his 
dead relatives, — to the savage who thinks and acts thus, 
the civilized man without fetish, guardian divinity, omen, 
spirit intercourse, or offerings at meals or graves, seems 
a person whose life has no sacred element; a person 
profane, groveling, and godless. 

In times of adversity, and especially of general adver- 
sity, the devotion of the savage increases. Misfortunes 
are regarded as indications of divine wrath. The tem- 
ples, in tribes which have advanced far enough to have I 
such structures, are rebuilt or readorned ; costly sacri- 
fices are offered ; and long processions march to the altars, 
or even crawl on hands and knees, dragging heavy 
stones.^ Among savages as among civilized people the 
priests reap their richest harvest in times of misery. 

Referring to the Polynesians, Gerlandsays: ** Although 
their moral feeling was slightly developed, their timor- 
ous religious sensitiveness had a controlling influence in 
their private and public life; for their simplest actions 
were affected and guided by considerations relating to a 
divine power. For them, religion was the most impor- 
tant element of existence."^ 



286 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Writing of the Arabs in the Soudan, S. W. Baker' tells 
us that, '" The conversation of the Arabs is in the exact 
style of the Old Testament. The name of God is coupled 
with every trifling incident in life, and they believe in the 
continual action of divine, special intercourse. Should a 
famine affect the country, it is expressed in the stern 
language of the Bible, ' The Lord has sent a grievous 
famine upon the land,' or, ' The Lord called for a fam- 
ine and it came upon the land.' Should their cattle fall 
sick, it is considered to be an affliction by divine com- 
mand ; or should the flocks prosper and multiply partic- 
ularly during one season, the prosperity is attributed to 
special interference. Nothing can happen in the usual 
routine of daily life, without a direct connection with the 
hand of God, in the Arab's belief. 

" This striking similarity to the description of the 
Old Testament is exceedingly interesting to a traveler 
when residing among these curious and original people. 
With the Bible in one hand, and these unchanged tribes 
before their eyes, there is a thrilling illustration of the 
sacred record ; the past becomes present ; the veil of 
three thousand years is raised, and the living picture is a 
witness to the exactness of the historical description. 
At the same time, there is a light thrown upon many 
obscure passages in the Old Testament, by the experi- 
ence of the present customs and figures of speech of the 
Arabs, which are precisely those which were practiced 
at the periods described. I do not attempt to enter 
upon a theological treatise, therefore it is unnecessary to 
allude specially to these particular points. The sudden 
and desolating arrival of a flight of locusts, the plague 
or any other unforeseen calamity, is attributed to the 
anger of God, and is believed to be the infliction of pun- 



SEC. 139. WORSHIP. 287 

ishment upon the people thus visited, precisel)?" as the 
plagues of Egypt were specially inflicted upon Pharoah 
and the Egyptains. Should the present history of the 
country be written by an Arab scribe, the style of the 
description would be purely that of the Old Testament, 
and the various calamities or the good fortunes that have 
in the course of nature, befallen both the tribes and in- 
dividuals, would be recounted either as special visitations 
of divine wrath or blessings for good deeds performed. 
If in a dream, a particular course of action is suggested, 
the Arab believes the God has spoken and directed him. 
The Arab scribe or historian would describe the event 
as 'the voice of the Lord,' [Kallam el Allah], having 
spoken unto the person ; or that 'God appeared to him 
in a dream' and 'said.' Thus, much allowance would 
be necessary on the part of a European reader for the 
figurative ideas and expressions of the people." 

Sec. 139. Worship. — Ecclesiastical ceremonies grow 
with theological conceptions. The Australian is sur- 
rounded by malignant spirits who are conceived vaguely 
as taking no special interest in any individual ; and he 
rarely performs any act of worship. He has no guardian 
divinity, or fetish ; and although he has a clan totem, he 
pays regard to it only by abstaining from injuring or eat- 
ing it. The Redman, in the tilling culturestep, has his 
personal fetish (selected in a dream) which he carries 
with him always, to which he frequently prays and makes 
offerings ; and besides he has certain public ceremonies 
of adoration paid to his totem, and to the spirits gen- 
erally. In the advanced masculine clan, the savage drops 
his totem and the fetish spirit selected in a dream. The 
chief objects of his worship now are his male ancestors 
in the direct male line. His grandfather, his great-grand- 



288 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

father, and if dead, his father. These ancestors look 
down on him with favor, if he pay popular devotion to 
them ; and he looks up to them with confidence. He 
worships them regularly and publicly ; in their service 
he employs priests. Under the dominion of a despotic 
chief, the savage rises to the idea of a tribal god, who 
never was human, and who must be worshiped with elab- 
orate ceremonies and sacrifices. The ancestral spirits are 
however, for the advanced savage, always the main objects 
of his worship. 

In the development of savage worship, the form ad- 
*vances more than the motive, but the latter changes from 
predominant fear to affection. The nameless malignant 
spirit of the Australian is regarded with terror; the 
guardian spirit of the Redman with devotion ; the ances- 
tral spirit of the Kaffir or Tahitian with confidence and 
affection ; and the tribal god of the Tahitian or Hawaiian 
with awe, as an exalted being who cares little for any 
men save the highest chiefs. 

The ceremonies of worship become complex as the 
priests gain wealth, influence and education. The eccle- 
siastical profession differentiates itself into numerous 
branches including those of diviners, singers, instru- 
■ mental musicians, sacrificers, custodians of sacred animals, 
and custodians and builders of temples. The ecclesias- 
tical ceremonies become complex and pompous, but all 
the main ideas of worship remain the same as when the 
highest divinity known was a human soul. 

The following Tahitian prayer shows the feeling of a 
worshiper, in the most advanced phase of modern savag- 
ism, towards his divinity : " Save me, save me', O my God, 
through this night in which the evil spirits have power. 
Watch over me, O my God ! O my Lord ! Protect me 



SEC. 139. WORSHIP. 289 

from sorcery, from sudden death, from the plots and 
curses and secret trickery of my enemies, and from dis- 
putes about land boundaries. Grant that peace shall 
prevail round me and mine. Save me from the evil spirit 
who delights in terrifying mankind, whose hair looks 
like frightful bristles. Grant that I and my soul shall 
live and rest in quiet through this night, O my God ! " ^ 

The sun is regarded by nearly all savages as the home 
of spirits, and devotion is paid to it and to fire as its rep- 
resentative. This worship of the sources of heat and 
light are however in most tribes, not connected with any 
very definite ideas. It is little more than empty ceremony 
based on ancient custom. At the beginning of every 
meal, the Moqui, Zuni and Pueblo, and the warrior of 
many ruder tribes in North America, throws a bit of 
food into the fire as an offering.^ The Chippeways," 
Pottawatamies* and Natchez^ keep sacred fires burning 
continually, as do the Congoese,® Damaras and the 
Dahomans.^ The name Cherokee means fire ; the Mus- 
cogees say that fire is their ancestor ; and the Chicka- 
saws, using a phrase of recent origin, tell us that the 
Great Spirit shows himself in fire.® The Creeks, Chero- 
kees, Natchez, Knistenos and some other tribes of Red- 
men have a harvest festival at which the old fires are 
quenched, the huts are cleaned, the people undergo 
ceremonies of purification, including the use of bathing, 
fasting, emetics and purges ; and when the sins of the 
people are washed away, and all offenses save murder are 
forgiven, new fires are solemnly kindled and the first 
fruits of the new crop are thrown into them.' 

Besides having their sacred fires, and paying worship 

to the sun, the Redmen regard smoking as a religious 

ceremony, make it a part of their most solemn festivals, 
^9 



290 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and have a sacred regard for the pipe. In many tribes, 
the warrior has the exclusive privilege of smoking, and 
before beginning he looks up to the sky, down to the 
earth and turns to the four cardinal points as if calling 
the attention of the spirits, in every direction, to his piety. 

Since the gods, on account of their remoteness, their 
higher nature and their less intimate association with 
human life and local affairs, receive less adoration than 
do the souls of men, so the sun is not worshiped as 
much as fire ; and yet it is or has been adored by many 
tribes in all the larger divisions of the globe. Waitz goes 
so far as to say that it is impossible to be a heathen with- 
out worshiping the sun.^® The high chief of the Natchez 
saluted the sun every morning, when it rose, with three 
long howls, blew tobacco smoke towards it and made 
obeisance to it}^ Though nominally Mohammedans, 
the Bedouins pay adoration to the sun/^ 

Subordinate chiefs must pay periodical visits to their 
superior with tribute, assurances of fidelity and demon- 
strations of submissiveness ; and with the same motive, 
after the savage has a temple, he must from time to time 
take offerings and pay adoration there to his god. At 
the outset, says Spencer, "presents to the dead differ 
from presents to the living neither in meaning nor mo- 
tive." If a noble, or chief, with numerous adherents or a 
large party go to a distant temple, for the purpose of 
worship, the journey becomes a pilgrimage. In some 
tribes as soon as they reach the sacred place, they march 
round it three times " with the sun," that is with the 
right side nearest to the shrine, singing songs in praise 
of the divinity .^^ 

Since morality is not a part of savage religion, cere- 
monial observances have a great relative prominence. 



SEC. 140. PRIESTS. 291 

The chief offenses in the eyes of the gods, are violations 
of sacerdotal orders.^* Every disaster is considered a 
divine retribution for some such offense. Among the 
Zulus, disease is often attributed by the priest, to the re- 
sentful persecution of a deceased ancestor who has not 
been properly worshiped by the afflicted descendant. 
The remedy prescribed is that the invalid must sing 
songs of praise and offer sacrifices to the offended spirit, 
until health returns. 

Nearly all savage tribes have regularly recurring sacred 
festivals, and as a general rule, the more advanced the 
culture, the more frequent, the longer and the more im- 
posing are they. At the beginning of their year, the 
Tahitians have a festival called the renewal of the gods, 
when the temples are cleaned and adorned ; the idols 
are exposed to the sun, oiled, perfumed, decorated, car- 
ried about in a procession with songs and instrumental 
music, and replaced ; after which all the nobles sit down 
to a public feast. The beginning of the fishing season 
and of the harvest are also celebrated with much cere- 
mony ; and the first fish and first fruit are offered to the 
gods in the temple. At the end of the year, farewell 
is said to the gods and they are begged to return with 
the new year. A feast is also set out by relatives for the 
spirits of all who have died within the preceding twelve- 
month.'' 

Sec. 140. Priests. — Whoever mediates or pretends to 
mediate, between his fellow-men and a supernatural being, 
is a priest, no matter how crude his faith, or how absurd 
his ceremonies may appear to the civilized observer.^ 
The professional expeller of evil spirits, the rain-maker, 
the discoverer of criminals by revelation, the sorcerer 
who causes disease or death by incantation, or saves 



292 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

from the incantation of others, the diviner who foretells 
the results of projected enterprisers by omens or spirit 
communications, the wizard who calls the dead from 
their graves, the seer who converses with the ever-pres- 
ent spirits, the prophet always authorized to explain 
the wishes of the gods to people and rulers, and the ec- 
clesiastic who conducts the public worship of his tribe 
on important occasions, — all these are alike priests, as 
all these acts are parts of sacerdotal business, and as all 
the theories on which those acts are based are religious. 
Wherever there are priests, they make a profit by their 
business.^ 

In the lower tribes, including all which have no hered- 
itary chiefs, any man may make a profession of priest- 
craft, in any of its departments. If successful in gaining 
the confidence of the community, his social position be- 
comes honorable, and his life relatively easy ; if unsuc- 
cessful, he falls back into the multitude. The profit of 
his sacerdotal practice depends, among the Redmen and 
Africans, upon the might of his fetish. He who has a 
large professional income for several years in consequence 
of some lucky hit, may be thrown into discredit by some 
notable failure, or by the trickery of a more cunning or 
more plausible rival. 

In certain American tribes, as for instance among the 
Dakotas and Cheyennes, the head war chief must be a 
priest ; and the combination of political with ecclesiasti- 
cal office, gives him much more influence than is pos- 
sessed by other chiefs in the same region. 

As a general rule among savage tribes, as well as 
among barbarous and civilized nations, democratic polit- 
ical organizations are accompanied by weak ecclesiast- 
ical systems ; and despotic governments, by powerful sac- 



i 



SEC. 140. PRIESTS. 293 

erdotal systems. We expect to find hereditary priests 
with hereditary nobles ; and aristocratic arrogance is as 
great among the sacerdotal as among the military chiefs. 

Tribes with despotic government and hereditary no- 
bility usually have what may be called an established 
church in which the ecclesiastics are of noble blood. 
Deriving a comfortable or luxurious support from their 
office, they arrange its duties in a routine, which a man 
of ordinary capacity may learn without great effort. 
Having no monopoly or ready control of convulsive and 
hysterical sensitiveness, they treat it as an inferior gift or 
a sacrilegious imposture and, resenting the competition of 
the sensitive sorcerers, seers and prophets, persecute 
them as agents of evil spirits. 

Every Maori warrior is also a priest, and in Samoa, 
there is no priesthood supported entirely by ecclesiasti- 
cal revenue ; but in the other Polynesian groups, the sac- 
erdotal profession is the exclusive privilege of a heredi- 
tary class of nobles and is a source of much power and 
profit to its followers. In Tahiti, the office of high 
priest is hereditary ; in Tonga, the high priest overshad- 
ows the political ruler, as it does in Congo. In Obbo, 
Loango,^ part of Madagascar,* Ebo, Blantyre, and Tanna,** 
the office of high priest belongs to the chief, and among 
the Khonds and Ashantees, to the family of the chiefs 

In many tribes a priest gains little influence and occu« 
pation in his profession, unless it is known that he has 
undergone an initiation, which may include fasting and 
bleeding as among the Arowaks,^ or fasting and lacera- 
tion as among the Chippeways,^ or fasting and exposure 
to much danger in handling poisonous serpents, as in 
portions of Africa. 

Save in a few tribes, the sacerdotal office belongs ex- 



294 ^ HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

cluslvely to men. Among the exceptions are the Fantis, 
Whydahs and Popos/ who have some women priests, and 
several Dyak tribes, all whose priests are women. In cer- 
tain Dyak tribes the men are priests, but they must wear 
the dress of women.^" There is a similar priesthood in 
Alaska. Among the Dahomans and Damaras a woman 
belonging to the family of the head chief may become a 
priest, and among the Blantyre negroes, during the ab- 
sence of the chief, who is also high priest, his wife con- 
ducts the worship." 

The worship of the ancestor belongs to the head of the 
household and is an obstacle to the rise of a powerful 
priesthood. As the sacerdotal profession rises, the do- 
mestic religion usually declines. Perhaps the weakest 
clergy among tilling savages with despotic chiefs is found 
in New Zealand, where the ancestral divinities are adored 
with great fervor and where the tribal gods are relatively 
insignificant. Some writers have said that there are no 
priests among the Maoris ; there is no such hereditary 
sacerdotal class as there is in Tahiti and Hawaii, but 
there are men who make a study of the ancient myths, 
songs, and rituals.^^ In some Kaffir tribes there are nu- 
merous gradations in the sacerdotal profession and every 
priest is expected to serve in every lower grade success- 
ively before admission to a higher one. The initiatory 
ceremonies include fasting, solitary contemplation, danc- 
ing and singing.^^ 

Among the Tahitians, Marquesans and some other 
Polynesian and some African tribes, the high priest bears 
the same title as the god, and is treated by his subordin- 
ates as if he were one.^* The same honors are paid to the 
priest as to the image of the divinity. Incense is burned, 
sacrifices are made, and prayers are addressed to him. 



SEC. 141. SENSITIVES, ETC. 295 

Sec. 141. Sensitives, etc. — In low savagism, the priests 
generally, or at least those who have the highest standing 
in their profession, are persons of peculiar nervous sensi- 
tiveness. " Persons whose constitutional unsoundness in- 
duces morbid manifestations are indeed marked out by nat- 
ure to become seers and sorcerers."^ Among the Zulus, 
men of "Very sensitive families" become priests.^ ''When 
first the spirit of prophecy manifests itself in a Kaffir, he 
begins by losing all his interest in the events of every- 
day life. He becomes depressed in mind, prefers solitude 
to company, often has fainting fits, and what is most ex- 
traordinary of all, loses his appetite. He is visited by 
dreams of an extraordinary character, mainly relating to 
serpents, lions, hyenas, leopards, and other wild beasts. 
Day by day he becomes more possessed, until the per- 
turbations of his spirit manifest themselves openly. In 
this stage of his novitiate, the future prophet utters terri- 
ble yells, leaps here and there with astonishing vigor, and 
runs about at full speed, leaping and shrieking all the 
time. When thus excited, he will dart into the bush, 
catch snakes (which an ordinary Kaffir will not touch), 
tie them around his neck, boldly fling himself into the 
water and perform all kinds of insane feats."^ When a 
Tongan priest is inspired with the spirit of prophecy he 
becomes greatly excited, and sometimes dies with the 
agitation.* Convulsions and actions similar to those of 
insane persons, are often observed in the priests of 
Siberia, Patagonia, the Bhil country,^ Fiji, Hawaii and 
Tahiti,® and they are brought on purposely by fasting, 
mutilations, sweat baths, solitude, drugs,^ narcotics and 
alcoholic liquors.^ The ancient Scythian priests in- 
haled the smoke of burning hemp. Savages generally 
regard every phase of intoxication, delirium, convulsion 



296 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

and wild or furious dementia as a spiritual possession. 
Lunacy and priestcraft are considered to be nearly related. 
The greater the resemblance in his conduct and appear- 
ance to that of a lunatic, the greater the confidence com- 
manded by the priest. His careless dress, his lean form, 
his glaring eyes, and the irregular and fidgety movements 
of his facial muscles and of his limbs, all heighten his re- 
pute for sanctity, and therefore his influence and his rev- 
enue. The sacerdotal profession among low savages, is 
not regarded as one of luxury or ease in its earlier years. 
Its votary must begin by subjecting himself to severe 
trials of various kinds, as a means of securing ultimate suc- 
cess. Some tribes of North American Indians for instance 
expected their young priest to thrust strong wooden skew- 
ers through the muscles of his breast, to suspend himself 
by these with his toes merely touching the ground, and 
to remain hanging thus all day without fainting.® 

As a consequence of the belief in some tribes that all, 
and in others that most diseases are caused by demoniac 
influence, the priest, among savages, has taken possession 
of the healing art. His chief remedy is exorcism, by 
songs, instrumental music, incantations, incense, offerings 
or prayers. He may prescribe an offering to propitiate an 
offended spirit, and in this case the gift goes to the 
priest for the spirit's benefit. One mode of treatment is 
based on the idea that the persecuting spirit will flee 
if the sick man's hut is made an unpleasant place of so- 
journ. In such case, the priest shouts, growls, groans, 
drums, barks like a dog, gesticulates furiously, makes ugly 
faces, gives disgusting medicines to the patient, burns sub- 
stances of fetid odor, and as a last resort, sets the hut afire, 
even if the invalid be so feeble that he can with difficulty 
escape.^*' Sometimes the priest says the evil spirit is in 



SEC. 142. SORCERERS. 29/ 

a stone, a bone, a lizard, a toad, or a snake, and points to 
the part of the body occupied by the possessed object 
He then puts his mouth to the place, pretends to suck 
out the thing and holds it up in his hand. With the 
help of dexterity on one side and credulity on the other 
this trick is nearly always successful, in everything save 
curing the patient. Some priests are able to throw up a 
small pebble or bone at will, and this skill is a great aid 
in this imposture.^^ The Maoris imagine that each organ 
is exposed to the attack of a special evil spirit, and that 
the best remedy is to address a suitable prayer to this 
spirit. The services of the priest are then indispensable. 
Even if emetics be administered, their efficacy is to be 
attributed to their potency in driving out the persecuting 
demon.^"^ 

Civilized travelers who have had good opportunities of 
observation, generally believe that the savage priests, as 
a class, have a sincere faith in their divine commission 
and in the real existence of their gods ; but that this sin- 
cere faith does not prevent those priests from using any 
trickery that may seem efficient in increasing their own 
revenue and influence. 

Sec. 142. Sorcerers. — A prominent part of the savage 
religion is the belief that sorcerers can control the disem- 
bodied spirits and influence them to enter, occupy and in- 
jure the bodies of men designated as victims. 

To use this malign influence with success, it is neces- 
sary, in many tribes, that the sorcerer should get a bit of 
rubbish from the body of his victim.^ The best material is 
some clipping from hair or nails, some saliva or excreta. 
For lack of these, any article of clothing that he has worn, 
any piece of food, from which he has bitten a part, may be 
employed. In Fiji, the bone of one of his ancestors is 



298 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

sufificient. If nothing better can be had, the earth on 
which his foot has left its track will suffice. An image 
made of clay or other material, enclosing the rubbish is 
called by the victim's "name — it is very important, for 
this purpose, to know his true name — and then scorched, 
burned, boiled, pierced with a thorn, cut with a knife, or 
crushed, while the sorcerer prays his god to kill the 
victim. In Tahiti, a skull is smeared with something 
that had been prepared as food for the victim and then 
the spirit of the dead man attacks the person with whose 
rubbish he has been insulted.^ The custom of thus 
using rubbish to destroy enemies is almost coextensive 
with savagism and has prevailed in many barbarous and 
civilized communities. Within the last half century, it 
has been practiced in England and Scotland. 

When it is known that a professional sorcerer has 
obtained rubbish of a person and has prayed that he may 
die, death is confidently expected. It is reasonable to 
suppose that poison is often employed to protect popu- 
lar expectation from disappointment and sacerdotal 
credit from serious diminution. Rubbish can be em- 
ployed to torture and demoralize the dead as well as the 
living, and to injure the latter through their spiritual 
guardians. 

In many countries, as a protection against sorcery, all 
personal rubbish is carefully burned; and corpses or 
their ashes are concealed. Among the New Zealanders 
one of the most disgraceful calamities that can befall a 
family is to permit the bones of a deceased chief or war- 
rior to fall into the hands of an enemy. For the purpose 
of enabling all to secure their own safety, there is an ex- 
tensive custom in Polynesia, that every person shall re- 
ceive his portion of food in a separate basket or on a 



SEC. 142. SORCERERS. 299 

separate leaf, and that, after finishing his meal, he shall 
secrete the remnants. There is no eating from a com- 
mon dish. 

If nothing that has been used by the intended victim 
can be obtained, the sorcerer can make an image rep- 
resenting him and by giving it his name, use it for his 
destruction. In such case it is impossible to achieve 
success without the true name of the victim ; ^ and per- 
haps for this reason, many savages are unwilling to let 
their names be known. 

Although in tribes with despotic governments, the 
priests recognized by the chiefs claim to possess and to 
exercise the powers of sorcery, they are hostile to all 
outsiders who have the credit of practicing that art. 
Unless bound together by a strong community of inter- 
est, such as relationship by blood or membership in an 
established priesthood, sorcerers are natural enemies to 
one another. In some tribes the sacerdotal profession is 
frequently called upon to find out the magician who has 
been the cause of a death, and the discovery is made 
either by omens or by smell. Since a victim must be 
found for every important offense, such as the sickness 
or death of a chief or prominent warrior, the life of a 
man hateful to the priest and without powerful friends, 
is very insecure. The evil is the result of malignant 
sorcery and must be expiated before relief is to be ex- 
pected. Everybody is suspected of being the malignant 
sorcerer ; at least no one save the mighty is safe from 
suspicion. The father is distrusted by his child, and 
the child by his father.* If either should be accused by 
the priest, the other must not venture to interfere. No- 
body must demand reasonable evidence ; the assertion of 
the priest or the divination under his management is con- 



300 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

elusive. The Abipones say that death would disappear 
from the world if the sorcerers would abandon their 
deplorable arts.^ 

The belief in the evil eye, — the power of the glance of 
the envious person to injure the desired object or its 
owner, — prevails in many savage tribes as well as in all 
Mohammedan and in ma ay Christian countries. Any 
admiring remark about a child, without some pious 
ejaculation to show that no harm is meant, provokes 
alarm where this superstition exists. In Abyssinia, chil- 
dren, houses and much prized beasts have some striking 
ornament to fix the attention of the evil eye, and prevent 
it from doing harm ; and many persons wear amulets in- 
scribed with some phrase that is considered a protective 
charm.® 

Sec. 143. Sheer dotal Functions. — In proportion as the 
grade of culture is higher, the ecclesiastical organization 
is more complex and the sacerdotal functions are more 
numerous. Among the tropical Polynesians, we find 
custodians of songs and legends, custodians of temples, 
musicians, and managers of public festivals as well as 
healers, diviners, sorcerers, sacrificers, and priests of fam- 
ily and tribal divinities. 

Besides taking charge of the places and ceremonies 
of worship, the Tahitian priests officiate at the installa- 
tions, marriages and funerals of chiefs, act as orators, 
singers, prophets and leaders in battle, consecrate temples 
and idols, announce taboos and watch over their enforce- 
ment, and by virtue of superior nautical skill and astro- 
nomical knowledge, command maritime expeditions to 
distant islands or groups.^ At the temples, they beat 
drums every morning to waken the gods and attract 
divine attention to the prayers, after which they return 



SEC. 143. SACERDOTAL FUNCTIONS. 3OI 

thanks for past favors and recite a litany. In portions of 
Polynesia the priests baptize and name children,^ absolve 
sinners after confession, and perform operations similar to 
that of circumcision. 

Like the gods of the savages, their priests delight in 
war. They encourage the chiefs and people to engage 
in hostilities. They go with the military expeditions, 
observe the omens or take the auspices and promise vic- 
tory.^ They bless their warriors on the battle field ; they 
curse the enemies ; and they share the spoil. In most 
tribes they are leaders in the fight ; in others, as among 
the New Caledonians, they stand aloof, fasting and pray- 
ing for victory. Among the Eggarahs, a high priest 
always holds the position of minister of war, and the in- 
fluence of the national religion is of course used to sus- 
tain all his military projects. In the Hawaiian group, 
if a theft has been committed without witnesses, and 
under circumstances which do not throw suspicion on 
any one, public notice is given that the gods will punish 
the offender. A priest throws some nuts into a fire and 
while they burn, he prays aloud that the thief may die, 
unless he shall come forward and confess. If he con- 
fesses, he is fined ; if he does not confess, the chief makes 
proclamation that the thief has been prayed to death, and 
the people believe that such a prayer is invariably fatal.* 

In portions of Polynesia if a person be suspected of 
having committed a crime, the priest may summon him 
to come (orward and take an oath of his inaocence. 
His compliance is accepted as proof; his refusal as an 
admission of guilt. The belief is universal that perjuiy 
in such a case is punished promptly with death. 

Among the Cheyennes, one duty of the tribal priest is 
to organize and superintend a sacred dance in the early 



302 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Spring, to determine by its omens, whether the good 
god — the divinity favorable to the tribe — will have con- 
trol over their fate in the approaching season. If the re- 
sult should prove favorable, they will undertake some 
hostile military expedition ; if unfavorable they will seek 
to avoid an encounter. The good omen is the comple- 
tion of the dance without the death or exhaustion of any 
of the participants, of whom all must dance, and whistle 
for forty-eight hours at least, and perhaps for sixty or 
seventy, never stopping for food, drink, rest, or any re- 
lief. This dance is called " making medicine " for the 
tribe. The superintending priest designates the time 
when, and the place where the dance is to be held, se- 
lects the men who must participate, releases those who 
fall down from overexertion, or orders them back to 
continue their work, and decides when success is assured 
and the dance may stop. If one of the dancers should 
die, as sometimes happens, the ceremony comes to a sud- 
den end, and without an announcement from the priest, 
everybody understands that the bad god is the master 
of the tribe for a year to come.^ 

One effective function of the priests is to punish their 
enemies. In portions of Africa, the man who refuses to 
pay tribute to the clergy, or who neglects to comply 
with the established ecclesiastical observances, has an in- 
secure life. At any moment, and without the least evi- 
dence against him, he may be convicted of sorcery and 
executed. For those who commit minor offenses against 
the sacerdotal authority, there are various punishments, 
such as those of Mumbojumbo, in which a party of dis- 
guised priests appear suddenly in a village and give un- 
merciful beatings to those selected as victims.^ 

Sec. 144. Areoi. — Several Polynesian groups had an 



SEC. 144. AREOI. 303 

ecclesiastical society called the Areoi/ and the Mariana 
Islanders had a similar organization, styled by them, the 
Ulitao. Membership in it was highly honorable and 
reserved for the nobles. Its main purpose was to pro- 
vide entertainments at the public festivals, and as these 
were always ecclesiastical, the association partook of the 
same character. Admission was desired by all and was 
granted to few, save those who had some special talent 
or skill, or strong influence with high chiefs or priests. 
There were seven ranks, and admission was granted 
only to the lowest ; with promotion by one grade at a 
time to those who had proved successful in amusing the 
multitude. The rules of excluding mediocrity and re- 
warding merit, and the imposing ceremonies with which 
promotions were celebrated, contributed much to the 
lustre and influence of the Areoi. Its members were 
marked with a special tattoo for every rank, familiar to 
everybody. 

It was the duty of the society to give dramatic per- 
formances, concerts, dances, athletic games, and sham 
fights, and to travel from island to island, whenever the 
time occurred for the local festival. They decorated 
their heads with flowers ; they dressed in bright colors ; 
they painted their bodies with black and their faces with 
scarlet. They included all the best actors, singers, danc- 
ers, and athletes in the country. Everywhere they 
were received with demonstrations of respect, supplied 
with the most delicious food, and allowed great privilege. 

Many of their songs were licentious, and at every fes- 
tival, members in the lower ranks took part in scenes of 
gross obscenity. Women as well as men were Areoi ; 
and all members of the society, whether married or not, 
were exempt from the rules of chastity. The gratifica- 



304 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

tion of their libidinous desires was considered a pious 
obligation. All their children, save the first son of the 
highest chief, were slain immediately after birth.^ Tonga, 
Samoa, and most islands of the Marquesas group have 
no Areoi. 

Sec. 145. Revenue^ etc. — The custom of making offer- 
ings to the gods in temples implies a sacerdotal revenue. 
Every system of worship in which animals are sacrificed 
by a priest or under his supervision, authorizes him to 
take part of the meat for his own use. It is so in Poly- 
nesia and Africa;^ it was so in ancient Egypt, Babylonia, 
Greece, and Rome. The Mosiac law authorized the 
priests to appropriate a share of the victim.^ 

The Tahitians, Costa Ricans, Zunis, Moquis, and 
many other savage tribes, have peculiar sacerdotal dia- 
lects, doubtless the remains of tongues which had become 
partly or wholly obsolete among the common people. 
The Nagas, Todas, and Damaras kindle fires, for ordin- 
ary purposes, with matches or other devices obtained 
from civilized visitors ; but their sacred fires must be 
lighted by the ancient method of friction with sticks ; 
and the same process of ignition was used for supersti- 
tious sacrifices in the Scottish Isles two centuries since, 
and for kindred purposes in Germany until recent times. 
The same tendency to tegard ancient sacerdotal usages 
as sacred, appears in the Jewish requirements that the 
stones of the altar should not be hewn,^ and that the 
bread for offerings should not be leavened;* in the 
adherence to stone knives for sacrifice by the Aztecs, 
Chibchas, and Karens after they had metal ; by the em- 
ployment of dead languages in the worship of various 
African and Polynesian tribes, as well as among Copts, 
Japanese, Buddhists, Jews, and Roman Catholics ; and 



SEC. 146. TABOO. 305 

by the adherence of the Egyptian priests to an archaic 
style of writing.^ 

Sec. 146. Taboo. — Taboo, one of the remarkable eccle- 
siastical institutions of savagism, was potent in Polyne- 
sia, less prominent in Micronesia, and relatively weak in 
Melanesia, Malaysia, Central Africa^ and part of Hindo- 
Stan. The Polynesian word taboo, according to some 
authorities means sacred, according to others *' obey or 
die." The institution is a sacerdotal prohibition of cer- 
tain acts under penalty of death. It consecrates certain 
persons and things. Every head chief is taboo ; no sub- 
ject can strike him without sacrilege. The taboo of the 
temple forbids any unconsecrated person to enter its pre- 
cinct. A kind of food may be taboo to a class of per- 
sons. If a tree is taboo, nobody but its owner can pluck 
its fruit. 

The Polynesian taboos are of many kinds, general and 
special, permanent and temporal, simple, compound and 
interdict. A permanent taboo is of ancient origin, and 
known to everybody. It is enforced without notification. 
Such are the rules that a dish used to hold the food of 
one person, must not be employed by another for the 
same purpose ; that food must not be cooked or eaten in 
a sleeping room ; that the wife of the head chief must not 
be touched lustfully by another man; and that slaves, 
women and common freemen must not eat certain kinds 
of food, nor enter temples, nor own canoes, nor go out to 
sea in canoes. All temples, their enclosed ground and 
their idols are protected by permanent taboos. 

One of these rules provides that whenever the head 
chief touches a piece of property he becomes its owner. 
In crossing the estates of his subjects, he is carried care- 
fully so that he shall not come in contact with the soiL 
20 



306 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

In many groups his name is taboo to the common people, 
and so are all words of the same sound. A general 
taboo is attached to the process of tattooing, and while un- 
dergoing it, a man must not touch food or a food dish with 
his hands. Every morsel that he eats must be put into 
his mouth by some other person. Certain acts are con- 
taminating and he who has committed them is taboo until 
he has undergone a ceremony of purification, or until a 
definite period has elapsed. A new house is taboo and 
cannot be occupied until a priest has driven away the 
evil spirits, and consecrated it. A new temple is taboo 
until the head chief has entered ; and not till then can it 
receive its idols or be used for worship. 

In part of Borneo, a taboo, akin to quarantine, forbids all 
persons, save those dwelling in a house, to enter it within 
twelve days after a death in it, or to speak to any of its 
occupants within that period ; and in the same region, 
after a death by a pestilential disease, the village where it 
occurred, and all its residents are taboo, for eight days, 
to the people of other villages. Every such taboo must 
be raised by the sacrifice of some animal.'^ 

In Polynesia, general taboos that are not permanent, 
are proclaimed by a public crier. In this class belong 
the prohibition to kill pigs or chickens for six months, 
after the supply of them has been much reduced by some 
great festival. The cows and other quadrupeds intro- 
duced into the Hawaiian Islands by Vancouver were pro- 
tected for ten years by a general taboo. An English 
sailor who offended a chief, was subjected to a special 
taboo under the influence of which no native would have 
anything to do with him. He begged for mercy and was 
purified of his offense by the priest. 

When a country is in great danger from a foreign 



SEC. 146. TABOO. 307 

enemy or when the head chief is dangerously sick, an 
interdict taboo, suggesting the interdict of the Roman 
CathoHc Church, is imposed on the whole community. 
It forbids the kindling of fire, cooking by use of artificial 
light, the hoisting of a sail, bathing, all public amuse- 
ments, and all loud noises save those made in the eccle- 
siastical ceremonies. The barking of a dog, the squealing 
of a pig, or the crowing of a cock, within the hearing of 
a chief or priest, at such a time is a great offense to the 
gods. During the interdict such animals must be taken 
far from the temples and villages, or secured so that they 
shall make no audible noise.^ The interdict is usually of 
brief duration, but one in Hawaii lasted thirty years. 
The simple taboo requires prayers in the temples and 
abstinence from business by the nobles. 

The taboo rules are not the same in any two groups 
of Polynesia or Micronesia. Each country has pe- 
culiarities in this respect. Usually taboo strengthens 
the power of the chiefs and nobles, and keeps the wo- 
men, commoners and slaves in subjection. To these latter 
classes ava, the only intoxicating drink, is taboo. There 
is not more than enough for the male nobles. Intox- 
icating drink is everywhere taboo, as are, in nearly all 
the islands, the rare kinds of delicious food, but Karavia is 
an exception, for there turtles and pigs are taboo to the 
men, as they are elsewhere to the women."* The first 
fruits and fish of the season are reserved for offerings to 
the gods ; they cannot be eaten by men without great of- 
fense.^ In Southern California, a custom suggestive of 
taboo, forbids the hunter to eat any part of the animal he 
has killed until he has taken it to the village to share 
with his family.^ 

Taboos to protect special pieces of property are indi- 



308 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

cated by marks attached to them. For this purpose a 
bundle of bamboo leaves, a cocoa leaf, a piece of bark 
cloth, or the figure of some animal cut out of bark or 
plaited with twigs, may be used. Among the Santals, a 
handful of straw, fastened on a bamboo stick, standing in 
the field, will give protection.^ In New Zealand, the 
taboo mark is red ; in other parts of Polynesia, white ; in 
Fiji, yellow. 

The penalty of violating a taboo is death, and it may 
be inflicted by the chief, the priest or the discoverer of 
the violation. After secret violation of a taboo, a man 
sometimes confesses and presents himself to the priest to 
be sacrificed to the gods. Those general taboos, which 
are announced by public cries, are raised by ecclesiasti- 
cal ceremonies including sacrifice, prayer and lustration.* 
In Samoa, a sick man is questioned by the priest whether 
he has not broken a taboo, and if he says no, he is never- 
theless purified with holy water to wash away any sin 
that may have been committed unconsciously.^ 

The important taboos emanate from the head chief 
directly or through the priests ; the minor taboos, such 
as those designed to protect individual property, may be 
attached by the owner. In the latter case, however, 
they have no force against a person of higher rank. The 
raising of the greater taboos requires special ceremonies, 
including the washing away of the consecration. No 
person is allowed to approach the high chief in Samoa 
until he has been purified for the occasion by sprinkling 
with holy water.^° Of the taboo as enforced in Hawaii, 
Jarves" says : ^* It may be regarded as one of the great- 
est productions of heathen ingenuity. A more power- 
ful system of religious despotism, at once capable of 
great utility and equal abuse, could not have been de- 



SEC. 147. OMENS, ETC. 3O9 

vised. Its application was adapted to all circumstances, 
and no civil or ecclesiastical government ever possessed 
a more refined yet effective weapon. Its influence among 
the common people was universal and inflexible. Its 
exactments were of the most humiliating and trouble- 
some description, and if anything had been wanting to 
complete their bondage, this, like the keystone to an 
arch, was made to perfect and perpetuate their degrada- 
tion." 

The system of taboo reached its highest development 
in countries like Tahiti and Hawaii, which had despotic 
chiefs, hereditary nobles, and powerful priesthoods. It 
had relatively little influence among the Maoris, who had 
no hereditary priesthood. It was not known among the 
Redmen, who have no hereditary class with superior 
privileges to be protected against trespass by the rabble. 
Wherever taboo exists, the people accept it as of divine 
origin and authority. The priests say so and the multi- 
tude believe. The sanction of the celestial command 
is not left however to celestial agency ; the priests 
promptly slay the man whom they detect in the violation 
of their orders. 

Sec. 147. Omens, etc. — Savages imagine that the spirits 
who surround them and take great interest in their life, 
are continually giving them omens, by which they can 
know what course to pursue in every contingency that 
may arise ; and they attribute a large part of their suc- 
cess or failure in life to the greater or less degree of at- 
tention with which they observe and accuracy with which 
they interpret these signs. A sneeze, a yawn, a stumble, 
a flash of lightning, the appearance of a quadruped, bird 
or reptile, the direction or speed of its motion, may indi- 
cate that the enterprise which the man is about to under- 



3IO A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

take should be pursued or abandoned. The sight of a 
hare suggests caution ; that of a tortoise, slow movement ; 
that of the totem of a-hostile tribe, great danger, that of 
the totem of the warrior, success ; or that of a fierce pred- 
atory bird or quadruped, encouragement. In Central 
Africa, Emin Pasha found these omens : " If an owl 
screeches near the house, its master dies. If a hyaena or 
jackal repeatedly approaches the house, misfortune is at 
hand. When the rhinoceros-bird croaks, rain may be 
looked for. If a wagtail sings on the threshold, guests 
or presents will arrive. If a man kills wagtails in the 
house, fire breaks out in it. If a wagtail forsakes its 
nest, made in the house, misfortune is near. Vultures and. 
ravens are chiefs among birds and their slaughter causes 
illness. If vultures alight on the top of a poor man's 
house, he will receive high gifts and presents. . . , 
If on moving from one house to another, anything is 
broken or a woman falls on the way, the family returns 
to the house it has left. If on starting for a campaign a 
buffalo runs across the path, or a guinea fowl flies up 
before the warriors, this portends the death of many men 
and every one turns back." ^ 

Most of the tribes which attribute all deaths to sor- 
cerers, study omens to discover the homicidal sorcerer 
in the case of every prominent man or warrior. The 
simplest omen, for such purposes, is the presumption 
that the first person met by the avenging party is the 
criminal. In some tribes, straws are laid on the fresh 
grave, pointing towards every village in the vicinity ; and 
the first straw on which a fly alights, indicates the place 
where the offender lives.^ In some tribes, the direc- 
tion taken by a bug put on the grave points out the 
home of the sorcerer.^ 



SEC. 148. TEMPLES. 3II 

Besides the omens offered to them by the face of nature, 
many tribes seek others in the revelation of priests and 
spirit mediums, in the appearance of the entrails of birds, 
and quadrupeds and human beings, and in a varied mul- 
titude of experiments. Of these methods of learning the 
will of the supernatural powers, the one most extensively 
used is divination from the entrails of birds. It is used 
by the Polynesians,* Araucans,^ and Kaffirs.^ In Uganda, 
human beings are sometimes sacrificed for the purpose 
of taking the auspices.^ Ordeals are nearly akin to div- 
ination in the beliefs out of which they grow, and are 
largely ecclesiastical in their nature, but as their purpose 
is to administer justice, their consideration belongs prop- 
erly to the chapter on polity. 

Sec. 148. Temples. — Under the impulse of respect for 
the dead, men learn to protect the corpses of their rela- 
tives and friends from wild beasts, by either burying or 
burning. Since the graves are often shallow on account 
of the lack of tools for digging, the degree of security for 
the corpse is estimated by the height of the earth or 
stones heaped up over the body ; and then the import- 
ance of the deceased and the esteem of the survivors are 
measured by the same standard. Thus sepulchral mounds 
began, and became numerous and large. 

A large class of conical sepulchral mounds is found 
in the Mississippi basin. Of these many have, in the 
center, on the surface of the ground a burial chamber of 
wood or uncut stone ; and others have similar tombs of 
later date at higher levels ; others have in the center, a 
clay altar about two feet high, a yard or more wide, and 
two yards or more long, with a slight concavity on top. 
On such altars might be found fragments of pottery, beads 
and ashes, suggestive of cremation,^ 



312 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

One mound seven yards high and sixty in diameter, in 
southwestern Ohio, about thirty miles from Cincinnati, 
appears to have been- the cemetery of a village. It en- 
closes many chambers made of uncut slabs of blue lime- 
stone, each chamber being about three feet high and 
containing one corpse in a sitting posture. There are 
several layers of such chambers, all covered with earth.^ 
Mounds containing urns, with bones burned or unburned, 
are found in South Carolina.^ 

An ecclesiastical mound, near Seltzertown, Mississippi, 
is six hundred feet long and four hundred wide on the 
ground, and forty feet high. A shaft forty feet deep near 
the middle did not reach the natural surface of the ground. 
At the sides were found sun-dried bricks.* One of the 
most remarkable structures of the mound-builders is at 
Marietta, Ohio, on a plateau, eighty feet above the level 
of the Ohio River. Two enclosures, each nearly square, 
one containing twenty-seven and the other fifty acres, 
surrounded by earth walls about six feet high, contain 
each four tumuli. Of these, the largest is a terrace, one 
hundred and eighty feet long, thirty-two wide and ten 
high. There are two smaller terraces, and five conical 
mounds about fifteen feet high. 

Among the notable earthworks constructed by the same 
race are mounds shaped like various animals. Adams 
County, Ohio, has a serpent seven hundred feet long, 
thirty wide and five high. The body of the reptile has 
four curves on each side, and the tail winds round in a 
coil. The mouth is open as if about to swallow an egg, 
which last is represented by an oval terrace one hundred 
and sixty feet long and eighty wide. In the center of 
this terrace, there is a stone mound.^ 

One mile from Granville, Licking County, Ohio, there 



SEC. 148. TEMPLES. 313 

is an alligator mound, two hundred and fifty feet long, 
forty feet wide in the body, with legs thirty-six feet long. 
The height is six feet.® Since the settlement of the 
country by the white men, no alligators have been 
found within five hundred miles of this place. Other 
mounds represent man, mammoth, buffalo, wolf, bear, and 
bird. The mammoth mound in Grant County, Wiscon- 
sin, is one hundred and thirty-five feet long, and forty 
wide across the body.^ The similarity of the mound to 
the great pachyderm is striking ; but as the soil near the 
mound is sandy, some writers have asserted that the 
trunk has been made of a sand drift. 

For the purpose of protecting the grave and its offer- 
ings against beasts and the weather, many tribes buried 
the body within the hut which was then abandoned as a 
habitation; or they erected a special building over the 
grave, and in case of a chief, placed the building in charge 
of a custodian instructed to make offerings of food, flow- 
ers and incense, and to sing hymns of praise every day. 
Such daily offerings are made in the sepulchral huts of 
Tahiti.® In Sumatra and New Guinea the graves are 
covered with shelters.^ The Dyaks put the sword, shield, 
paddle and other property of the deceased in a sacred hut.^' 
In Fiji the corpses of chiefs are put into huts which are 
rudimentary temples. In Congo, the body of the de- 
ceased chief is deposited in a hut to which clothes are 
taken as presents, and as these presents accumulate, in 
the course of time it becomes necessary to build other 
huts, perhaps five or six, to hold them. The persons 
who make the offerings, pray to the spirit for protection 
and blessing." The Buddhist topes are tower-shaped 
tombs, built of stone and solid. Prayers are offered at 
them and processions of worshipers march round them. 



314 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Among the Turanians, according to Mr. Fergusson, " the 
tomb and temple may be considered as one and the same 
thing."^^ The corpse of every Inca monarch had its 
chapel, where his spirit was worshiped/* The tomb of 
Darius resembled his palace/^ The tombs in Egypt were 
more splendid than the dwellings, and as they were 
places for regular worship, and were never used for habi- 
tation or business, they became temples.^^ There were 
cave temples as well as cave sepulchres." Among the 
Tongans and Kaffirs, the grave of a high chief is a 
sacred place, where a man may not be slain, and where 
enemies must meet as friends, or at least without any act 
of violence. 

When a numerous priesthood devote all their time 
to sacerdotal business, they acquire consecrated grounds 
and temples, among savages as well as in barbarous and 
civilized communities. In New Zealand and the Queen 
Charlotte Islands, there is no class of men devoted ex- 
clusively to priestly duties, and there are no temples, 
but there are sacred groves.^^ The savage temples 
are usually in the midst of groves. The only aborig- 
inal stone structures of Polynesia are the maraes, places 
of burial for the chiefs, and temples for worship. Some 
of these maraes are simple mounds of earth enclosed in a 
wall of stone, and have successive terraces or steps. 
The marae on Atahiva Point, Tahiti, is eighty-two yards 
long, twenty-nine wide, and fifteen high, rising in ten 
steps, each more than a yard high and in some places 
three yards wide. The highest terrace is four yards 
wide and sixty-six long.^' The enclosing walls are of 
coral rock cut into shape, but how cut no one knows, 
for it is supposed that the marae was erected before 
the arrival of the first Europeans, and before metallic 



SEC. 148. TEMPLES. 315 

tools were known.''" The only place where similar mate- 
rial can be obtained in the vicinity, is now three feet under 
water at low tide. The enclosed grounds of this marae 
have an area of about three acres, with numerous large 
trees, one species of which is a casuarina, and the rust- 
ling of its leaves in the wind is said by the temple priests 
to be the voice of the gods.^^ In the enclosure there 
are houses for the priests and idols. Every one of the 
larger islands of the Tahitian group has its marae. In 
Ponape, the marae is four hundred and thirty yards long, 
and seven yards wide f^ in the Marquesas group, there 
is a marae one hundred yards long, twenty wide, and 
three high; and in Tongataboo, the marae has stone 
blocks eight yards long, four wide, and more than a 
yard thick.^^ 

The platform to hold the offerings, in the grave, huts, 
and burial grounds of Tahiti and Hawaii, have the size 
and shape of biers, and are incipient altars. The Bed- 
ouins pile stones over the graves and there sacrifice 
sheep and camels to the dead, using the stone heap for 
an altar.^* The early Hebrew altars were of undressed 
stones, reminding us of those of their modern Semitic 
relatives.^^ The Central Americans make altars of stone 
and mortar over graves, and on them burn incense and 
make offerings."^^ The altars, at the entrance of the cata- 
combs of Thebes are carved with representations of offer- 
ings, like those painted on the tombs, suggesting that 
the tomb was used for an altar, and that the latter was 
differentiated from the former.^^ The tumulus over the 
grave of a Chinese emperor, being too large for use as an 
altar, a small structure must be erected at its side to 
hold the offerings.^® 

The rude stone monuments known as menhirs and 



3l6 A HISTORV^ OF MANKIND. 

dolmens or cromlechs have, by many writers, been at- 
tributed to savages, but Fergusson, the highest author- 
ity in reference to them, thinks they were erected by 
barbarians and description of them is reserved for the 
next volume.^' 

Sec. 149. Religious Development. — Like other depart- 
ments of culture, savage religion is a human production. 
Neither in its origin nor its growth, neither in its dog- 
mas nor its ceremonies, neither in its priesthood nor its 
influence, does it bear the marks of supernatural wisdom 
or goodness. Unlike the Pallas of the Grecian myth, it 
did not appear at the moment of birth, as a full grown 
divinity. Whatever may justly be claimed for divine 
revelation in higher conditions of progress, there is no 
proof, nor even the least evidence of any direct commu- 
nication, from a supernatural source, of religious truth to 
the savage man. 

The beginnings of religion, as we have seen were al- 
most imperceptibly small ; its early forms coarse and 
rude ; and its ideas unsound ; its later forms slow in their 
development ; its sacerdotal representatives arrogant and 
violent; and its believers ignorant and credulous. It 
had no morality, no great first cause, and no immortality. 
Its spirits, its gods, its divine communications, its omens, 
its taboos, its divine penalties for the violation of taboos, 
its sorcery and remedies for sorcery, its diagnosis of and 
remedies for disease, and its sacerdotal authority had no 
basis save in a wild imagination. 

We have found the first phase of religion in adoration 
of souls, which are conceived vaguely as having no 
blood relationship to the worshiper. This form of faith, 
based mainly on dreams accompanied by a timorous 
feeling, is found among such low savages as the Austral- 



SEC. 149. RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT. 317 

ians. A little higher is soul worship when associated 
with totemism ; and still higher when accompanied by 
fetishism. After men have risen to tilling culture 
and have then advanced to the masculine clan, they 
abandon the worship of souls, and adopt that of their 
ancestors. They make offerings and sacrifices regularly 
at the grave, and build altars and temples. 

After adopting compact tribal organizations, and des- 
potic chiefs, they recognize national gods, establish he- 
reditary priesthoods, and adopt elaborate rituals of wor- 
ship. 

There is no evidence in favor of the theory that true 
religion was revealed to the primitive men and that it 
was then corrupted by the infirmities of humanity. All 
the presumptions point in the contrary direction. No 
other branch of culture has such peculiar guarantees 
against decay. No other has such a hold on popular 
affection. No other has been in the hands of a body of 
men so intelligent, and so steadfast in maintaining their 
ideas and customs. Political institutions are overturned 
more easily and more frequently than religions. In sav- 
age tribes and barbarous nations generally, the priests 
are the most powerful, most conservative, and most per- 
manent class of persons. In the ruder communities, no 
such well-paid, jealous, influential, and well-organized 
class in the full vigor of years and experience has ever 
become the custodians and managers of the social and 
political affairs, as are the priests in many nations. 

Religion has so much influence over the human mind ; 
it has been accepted everywhere with such complete faith 
by the multitude, and in the higher phases of savagism, 
it has been so profitable to nobles, priests, and chiefs, 
that they certainly never could have allowed it to decay. 



51 8 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

As a matter of fact we know that willingly they never 
did. The hypothesis of degeneration is as much a prod- 
uct of a wild imagination as is savage religion itself 

The assertion has been made by the Duke of Argyle 
and accepted by Max Muller that " Whenever we can 
trace back a religion to its first beginnings, we find 
it free from many blemishes that affected it in its later 
stages."^ That idea has not found the least confirmatory 
evidence in the religions of savagism. Neither in Polyne- 
sia, nor America nor Africa have we found a religion free 
from blemish nor have we found one that was corrupted 
by advancing culture. In regard to the tendencies in the 
development of religion in barbarism and civilization, the 
proper time to express opinions, will arrive after the evi- 
dence has been submitted. In savagism, religion im- 
proves with time. 



CHAPTER IX. 

REVIEW. 

Section 150, Culture Services. — The lowest form of 
culture, directly known to us, is that of non-tilling savag- 
ism, in which man possesses edge tools, missile weapons, 
articulate speech, tame fire, defensive groups, retaliatory 
justice, and soul worship. How long he had lived on 
the earth before he made these acquisitions, we do not 
know ; but the history of his mental development, since 
he obtained them, is traceable more or less clearly ; and 
its main events, before he learned to smelt metals, are 
told in this volume. 

In looking back at the achievements of man in savag- 
ism, we find that he became an excellent hunter and fish- 
erman. He supplied himself with clothes and dwellings. 
He acquired skill in agriculture and navigation. He ac- 
cumulated stocks of food. He built large villages. He 
maintained communities, in which density of population 
stimulated thought, favored the lively circulation of ideas, 
and aided progress. He devised rules of politeness to 
guide the intercourse between equals, between host and 
guest, between chief and subject. He organized groups 
bound to defend their members, and he gradually en- 
larged them. He established slavery, nobility, and 
strong government. He invented defensive armor and 

(319) 



320 



A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



fortifications. He used strategy and made beginnings in 
tactics. He adopted theological creeds and ecclesiastical 
systems. He had ceremonies of worship, and rudiments 
of a code of morality. 

This summary of the services of the savage to progress, 
shows that he laid the foundations and built an impor- 
tant portion of the superstructure in all the main depart- 
ments of culture. The credit, for his numerous and val- 
uable contributions, does not belong exclusively or 
mainly to any one country nor can we trace the origin 
of any one of them unmistakably to a special continent 
nor even to any race. 

Sec. 151. Grades of Culture. — For the purpose of com- 
paring the cultural conditions of some of the lowest 
tribes, the following table has been compiled. A blank, 
in the table indicates that information is lacking. N 
stands for no and Y for yes. The main tests, for the 
lowest culture, are the possession of four numerals (that 
is whether the tribe can count more than three), dogs, 
canoes, huts, tillage, chiefs, pottery, polished stone, 
cloth, and funeral rites. The lowest Californians are 
those of Lower California ; the lowest Australians are 
those of Western Australia. 



Tribes. 



Bushmen 

Lowest Californians 

Tasmanians 

Lowest Australians 

Andamanese 

Fuegians 

Drift Europeans .... 

Echinus Aleuts 

Hill Veddahs 



Four ^ 
numerals 


U 


N 


1 
Canoes. Z 


d 




n 


r-t- 


^0 



0* 
3^ 


N 


N. 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


Y 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 




N 


Y 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 




y 


Y 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 




N 






N 




N 


N 






N 






N 




N 


N 






Y 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 


N 



ft) 2 



N 
Y 
Y 
Y 

N 
N 
N 
Y 



SEC. 151. GRADES OF CULTURE. 321 

Cook, Darwin, Fitzroy and Wallis thought the Fue- 
gians the lowest of all tribes in culture. By Burchell that 
distinction was awarded to the Bushmen ; by D'Urville 
to the Australians and Tasmanians ; by Forster to the 
Mallicollos ; by Owen to the Andamanese ; by Peschel^ 
to the Botocudos ; by Bailey to the Veddahs ; by Pick- 
ering^ to the wild people in the interior of Ceram ; by 
Fremont^ to the Piutes at Christmas Lake ; and by Waitz* 
to the Australians, Bushmen and Fuegians. Among 
these tribes, considered by various authors as belonging 
in the lowest grade of savagism, the only cannibals are 
the Botocudos, who are also the only tribe on this list, 
possessing the art of making pottery. 

Some Australians have dogs but no canoes ; the An- 
damanese and Fuegians have dogs but no huts ; many 
western American tribes dwell in good huts, though they 
do not till the soil ; among the Polynesians and Micro- 
nesians tillage preceded pottery ; the Maoris have polished 
stone and tillage but no cloth nor pottery, and the Fijians 
and some South Americans have pottery but no cloth. 
The canoe made of plank indicates higher skill than that 
made of bark or of a single log ; the oar is higher than a 
paddle, and the sail higher than the oar. But the lack 
of industrial improvements may in some cases be charged 
to the poverty of natural resource in a district, rather than 
to the stupidity of its human occupants. It was impossi- 
ble to invent sail boats in deserts, or pottery in regions 
which produced no clay. 

All the leading weapons made without metal were 
known to non-tilling savages, but the order of time in 
which they were introduced is not now discoverable. 
The simplicity of the spear suggests that it was the first 
of missile weapons to be shaped and polished with care. 
21 



322 



A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



We find it as the chief weapon of the AustraHans and 
Tasmanians, while the Bushmen, Lower Cahfornians, Fue- 
gians and Andamanese, on the same general level of cul- 
ture, use the bow in preference, if not to the exclusion 
of the spear. The slin^ is common among the Fuegians 
and not among the Andamanese, Bushmen or Austra- 
lians. The throw-stick and spear-sling, ingenious and 
effective devices for giving additional impetus to spears, 
are not found among the most advanced savages, as the 
Polynesians, but are limited to such relatively low tribes 
as those of Australia and New Caledonia. The Fuegians 
have fish hooks ; the higher Chippeways and Blackfeet 
have none, though they have in their waters an abundance 
of fish suitable for the hook. 

The following table shows certain cultural features of 
some advanced tribes : — 



Tribes. 


n 

en 


•-t 


o 

St 




H 
3 






Iroquois 


No 
No 
No 
No 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 


No 
No 
No 
Yes 

Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 


No 
No 
No 
No 
No 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 


No 
No 
No 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 


No 
No 
No 

No 
No 
No 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 


No 
No 

No 
No 
No 
No 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 
Yes 


No 


Creeks 

Dakotas 


No 
No 


Kaffirs 


No 


Maoris 


No 


Samoans 


No 


Fijians 

Tongans 


Yes 
Yes 


Hawaiians 

Tahitians 


Yes 

Yes 



Sec. 152. Some Characteristics. — As a general rule, the 
lower the culture, the scantier the population. Waitz^ 
quotes Foissac's estimate that tillage will support, on 
the same area, twenty times more people than pasturage, 
and that pasturage will support twenty times more than. 



SEC. 152. SOME CHARACTERISTICS. 323 

the chase or the gathering of wild fruits and seeds. 
Lubbock"'' allows seventy square miles for each savage 
hunter, and perhaps bases his calculation on the statistics 
of the Hudson's Bay territory which, about 1850, had one 
million four hundred thousand square miles and one hun- 
dred thirty-nine thousand aboriginal inhabitants, or five 
persons, equivalentto one hunter, for seventy square miles.* 
But much of that area is in a frigid climate, where vege- 
tation and animal life are very scanty ; and besides, the 
number of inhabitants represents the condition after there 
had been a great decrease in the number of wild ani- 
mals by slaughter for pelts to supply the European market. 
The deserts of Australia, the African Sahara, and Central 
Asia and the enclosed basin of North America could pre- 
sumably not support more than one savage family to fifty 
square miles ; but these are regions of exceptional aridity 
and sterility. Aboriginal New York had about one inhab- 
itant to two square miles, and this number is presumably 
near the average of fertile countries in the temperate 
or torrid zone. 

Here and there we may find districts which would 
support a dense savage population without tillage. Such 
was a belt along the Columbia River for four hundred 
miles from its mouth where the salmon was exceedingly 
abundant. Another district of the same class was that 
extending from the Mississippi River three hundred 
miles westward between latitudes thirty-seven and forty- 
one, where fertile plains covered with luxuriant grasses 
in the track of the migrating buffalo, were favorite feed- 
ing grounds for them. The Redmen could cure the 
meat of buffalo and salmon to keep for a year, and could 
procure abundant supplies in the season of their migra- 
tion. 



324 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

The capacity of cultivated land to support population, 
besides being dependent on water supply, temperature, 
fertility, and method of tillage, varies much with the 
productiveness and nutritious quality of different plants. 
An acre of wheat may yield twelve bushels or seven 
hundred and twenty pounds, enough to maintain one 
average person for a year. The potato crop yields a hun- 
dred bushels, or when reduced to the same proportion of 
moisture, twice as much as the wheat, and enough for 
two persons/ The date palm bears three hundred and 
sixty pounds of fruit to the tree, and an acre will feed five 
persons.^ The bread fruit will sustain eight persons to 
the acre,^ and banana twenty-five persons, its yield being 
one hundred and twenty times greater than that of wheat, 
and after deducting moisture, twenty-five times greater.' 

In the beginning of his existence as a race, man's life 
was monotonous, short and insecure. He had little cloth- 
ing and poor shelter to protect him against the inclem- 
encies of the weather. His supply of food was often insuf- 
ficient, and unwholesome. He was constantly surrounded 
by danger from cannibal men, from carnivorous brutes 
and from his own superstitious fears. His industrial 
capacities, his reasoning powers, his moral feelings, and 
his artistic perceptions were undeveloped, and so many 
of the pleasures furnished by them to civilized men, were 
unknown to him. As a race his condition was immature 
and even infantile. But even then, with all its drawbacks, 
life was precious to him. Conscious existence was the 
greatest of all blessings, and death the greatest of all 
evils. He rejoiced when he escaped from any immi- 
nent danger ; he lamented when his friends had closed 
their eyes forever to the sunlight. 
*In consequence of the irregular and often unwhole- 



SEC. 153. DEPARTMENTAL RELATIONS. 325 

some food supply, the frequent and severe famines,® the 
scarcity of accumulated property that might be used in 
purchasing provisions, the lack of a generally accepted 
medium of exchange, the costliness and slowness of trans- 
portation, the continuous and general hostilities prevent- 
ing migrations to districts with abundant supplies, and 
the customs of infanticide and habitual warfare, there is 
no perceptible increase of population in the average sav- 
age tribe from generation to generation. 

In savagism, war is almost constant ; life is short, in- 
secure and relatively little prized ; famine is frequent ; 
regular toil is without respect or prominence ; there is 
no governmental protection of right or punishment of 
crime; religion has no recognized connection with mor- 
ality ; the wife is little better than a slave ; and the gen- 
eral mental condition is not much above that of the 
brute. In civilization the condition of men is much bet- 
ter as to all these points. Wars are less frequent and 
less destructive, the average duration of life is more than 
double ; famines are rare ; toil is reputable and product- 
ive ; the popular religion has a high ethical standard ; 
governments are watchful and efficient in protecting 
private rights ; and numerous intellectual entertainments 
are provided for hours of leisure. 

Sec. 153. Departmental Relations. — The time has come 
when we should turn our attention to the influences ex- 
erted by the different departments of savage life on one 
another. 

Industry is the foundation and main force of culture. 
It occupies most of man's time. It furnishes the sole 
support of his physical existence. He might live m a 
brutish manner, without the aid of any other, but not 
without this department. In many respects, it exercises 



320 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

a great influence on the other branches of Hfe. By its 
successive advances, it enables and compels man to or- 
ganize social and political institutions. 

Among the branches of industry, the most important 
is tillage. It creates a stock of property which demands 
the protection of a strong political organization. It 
makes a demand for professional soldiers and gives them 
leisure for military drill. It builds towns which are the 
centres of social, political, intellectual, and ecclesiastical 
influence. It leads to the establishment of slavery, to 
habits of regular toil, and to the recognition of the re- 
spectability of agricultural labor. Through slavery it 
leads to hereditary nobility and to stronger political or- 
ganization. 

Military discipline which was the effect of agriculture, 
was, in its turn, the cause of many important changes in 
life. It demanded habits of order, obedience, and recog- 
nized responsibility. It gave dominion to practical judg- 
ment, to courage, to tact, and enabled the men possessing 
these qualities to occupy the most desirable countries. 

It gave increased security to life and property. It 
overthrew the feminine clan, and the small group ; it es- 
tablished the masculine clan, the consolidated tribe, and 
powerful chieftainship. 

The masculine clan, in its turn, overthrew soul-wor- 
ship and established ancestor worship. The consolidated 
tribe led to the recognition of tribal divinities, with hered- 
itary priesthoods, with temples and pompous ecclesiasti- 
cal ceremonies. The church became a buttress of the 
State. The altar and the throne combined their forces 
to subjugate the multitude, and though their yoke was 
heavy and cruel, it was necessary to the cause of culture. 
Social institutions and general intellectual activity are 



SEC. 153. DEPARTMENTAL RELATIONS. 327 

effects rather than causes in the advance of savagism. 
The greatest power is industry ; next to it is military dis- 
cipHne ; after that poHty, and then reUgion. 

When we considered separately the advance of indus- 
try, social life, language, morality, polity and religion, 
we found much reason for believing that each is a natu- 
ral and necessary product of our mental constitution, 
and that each grew, in accordance with general laws, 
from its earliest beginning to the end of the stone cult- 
urestep, beyond which our examination has not ex- 
tended. This evidence is fortified by other proof, fur- 
nished by the relations of the various departments of 
culture to one another. Those branches which are the 
least spiritual, and for which the least claim of super- 
natural origin and aid has been claimed, are also those 
which have exerted the most influence on general prog- 
ress, and out of which, to a considerable extent, the 
others have grown. These are industry and military or- 
ganization, which are the foundations of all the more 
advanced political, social, and ecclesiastical systems. 
They have rendered much assistance to religion and 
morals, and have received little in return. That which 
needs and accepts the help of natural influences must, 
itself, be natural. 

The supposition that human culture, or any branch of 
it, is of supernatural origin, is contradicted by all the an- 
alogies, as well as by all the direct evidences of history 
and science. No eminent astronomer, geologist, chemist, 
biologist, or archaeologist claims to have found on his 
domain one unquestionable act of supernatural power. 
Under the uninterrupted and exclusive jurisdiction of 
natural law, the celestial bodies shaped their globes, 
adopted their orbits, and regulated their speed; the 



328 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

earth formed its strata, continents, mountains, valleys, 
seas, and rivers ; the elements united by chemical affin- 
ity, with definite proportions, into various minerals each 
possessing its peculiar and invariable crystallization- 
angle, color, and specific gravity ; the physical and psy- 
chical forces inseparably attached to matter, changed 
their forms and conserved their energy ; and plants and 
animals developed their species, until animated nature 
blossomed into the enlightened man. Nowhere in all 
this wide range of knowledge connected with the origin 
and early life of man and of his terrestrial dwelling place, 
has scientific or historical research been able to find any- 
thing that transcended the laws of nature. The tele- 
scope, microscope, and spectroscope, the scale and assay 
tube of the chemist, the hammer of the geologist and 
the spade of the archaeologist, all make the same report. 
They have not anywhere found any effect that could be 
traced directly and immediately to a supernatural cause. 

Besides, archaeologists, ethnologists, and historians 
are agreed that the numerous events, attributed by sav- 
ages to supernatural agency, are, without exception, the 
results of mere natural agencies. All the communica- 
tions which the heathen priests claim to receive from 
disembodied spirits, all their auguries, all their omens, 
all the sorceries which they pretend to discover or to 
perform, all the supernatural possessions which they re- 
port, — all these are results of delusion or deception. 

Sec. 154. Queer Customs. — The queerness of certain 
customs becomes more queer when we observe that 
they are found in regions widely separated from one an- 
other, and that in the intervening spaces, they are un- 
known or are considered absurd. The civilized man 
cannot easily believe that, in any condition of culture, 



SEC. 154. QUEER CUSTOMS. 329 

fashion should make it obligatory to wear a large and 
heavy block of wood or stone, as an ornament in a hole 
cut through the lower lip. In one case the hole and its 
bung were each five inches long and three inches wide ; 
in another the weight was a pound. A labret of such 
size and weight, besides being a source of much discom- 
fort to the wearer, must distort the face and make it 
disgusting to any spectator of refined taste. And yet 
among savages such things were indispensable to the 
woman of fashion, in Alaska, in Central America, in 
Southern Brazil, and in Central Africa. 

Another custom which, for its discomfort and in- 
jury to good looks, and lack of any compensating 
advantage, may be placed along side of labret wearing, 
is the breaking out of permanent teeth, the sacrifice in 
some tribes extending to four or even six of the front 
teeth. In its extreme phases, this detestable practice is 
limited to Africa, though in its milder forms it extends 
to Melanesia and Malaysia. Akin to it, is the teeth filing 
process. Less productive of discomfort are the customs 
of flattening the head, and the nose, stretching the ears, 
cutting out part of the ear and part of the septum of the 
nose, pulling out the eyebrows and eyelashes, circum- 
cision and the practices akin to it. Tattooing was a very 
painful process, but it was a test of endurance, and in 
climates where clothing was very scanty, was a decora- 
tion. The same remark applies to the marking of the 
face, limbs and body with cicatrices. The tortures in- 
flicted on the young men before they could be admitted 
into the warrior class, in many tribes, seem almost incred- 
ibly severe to the civilized reader, and so do the trials of 
the participants in the divination dance of the Redmen to 
determine whether the coming season is to be favorable 



330 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

to their military operations ; but they had the practical 
purpose of proving strength and endurance, which entitle 
the possessor to much more honor in savagism than in 
civiHzation. The couvade and son-in-law shyness, like 
other strange usages mentioned in this section, are found 
scattered over various continents and are unknown to 
extensive intervening regions. 

These queer customs serve to illustrate the great dif- 
ferences between the tastes of low and high culture, but 
they give us little valuable light on the influences that 
have aided the course of general progress. We seek in 
vain for reasons why these customs should be limited to 
the areas where we find them. Whether they originated 
independently in every district where they now exist, or 
whether they once covered whole continents and after- 
wards fell into desuetude in many countries, are unsolved 
problems. 

The extensive modern prevalence of the feminine 
clan in the widely separated regions of North America 
and Australia, and the traces of its existence in all the 
other continents, lead us to infer that men had occupied 
all the large divisions of the globe before they accepted 
the rule of paternal descent. The couvade and son-in- 
law shyness, being later in their origin than the mascu- 
line clan, must either have arisen independently in differ- 
ent countries, or long after the settlement of men in 
them, must have been communicated from one continent 
to another. Of the two suppositions, that of independ- 
ent origin is the more probable. 

Sec. 155. Benefits of War, — In every branch of culture, 
evolution has been marked by numerous successive im- 
provements, each growing out of older forms, and all 
contributing to make up the aggregate of what we under- 



SEC. 155. BENEFITS OF WAR. 33 1 

stand by the word progress. Each, as compared with 
the older forms which it superseded, was good ; and each 
as compared with the newer forms by which it was re- 
placed, was evil. 

In one sense at least, we may say of human institu- 
tions that " whatever is, is right." The fact that an insti- 
tution has existed is presumptive evidence that it sup- 
plied a want, and in so far was good. If low and seri- 
ously defective, it aided in the development of something 
better. Its faults were instructive ; its evils suggested 
and stimulated efforts to find remedies ; it served as a 
basis for improvement. 

One of the most potent means, by which nature has pro- 
vided for the continuous improvement of the human race 
in the lower stages of culture, is warfare, the most cruel 
of human institutions, the greatest destroyer of life and 
property, and in many respects the chief enemy of order 
and industry. It seems contrary to all the rules of moral 
consistency that an institution so full of evil in its mo- 
tives, methods, and results, should not only be the cause 
of many good effects but that it should be predominantly 
beneficent in its results. 

Blood and tears seem to count for little or nothing in 
the competition of life. The highest end of nature, per- 
ceptible to history or science, is the development of the 
human species, but in contributing to this end the major- 
ity of individuals have a very small share. In humanity, 
as in organic life generally, germs greatly outnumber 
mature individuals. Under favorable circumstances, the 
woman may rear a dozen children ; in no country does 
the average woman rear four. The germ has a possibil- 
ity of being, but not a right to be born, and the newly 
born infant has a possibility but not a right of reaching 



332 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

mature life. The man has no right to a compensation 
for suffering. His life is subject to limitations, with 
which he must become familiar by the aid of pain. This 
warns him from danger and compels him to engage with 
all his might in the struggle for existence. Its compul- 
sion is cruel. He finds little mercy in frost, fire, hunger, 
thirst, flood, earthquake, poisonous serpent, carnivorous 
beast or cannibal man. He must fight to escape plunder, 
torture and enslavement. 

In low culture there is little mercy for those beyond 
the limits of a small group. Tenderness towards others 
would be a waste of energy; a source of weakness. 
Nature not only permits but compels the savage and the 
barbarian to fight with the crudest weapons, with devas- 
tation, with despotism, with slavery and with massacre. 
To those who lay waste, and plunder, and enslave and 
slaughter most relentlessly, — to the Iroquois and Dakotas 
among the Redmen; to the Kaffirs and Dahomans of 
Africa ; to the Assyrians and Persians of Asia, to the 
Romans and the Teutons of ancient Europe, destiny 
has given the highest success. 

The struggle for life is a necessity. Germs are too 
numerous for space, and in one way or another, most 
of them must be prevented from reaching their full de- 
velopment and over-crowding the earth. This rule ap- 
plies not less to man than to quadrupeds, birds and fishes. 
Since man found no brute more formidable than himself, 
he was compelled to fight with his own kind. War is 
the necessary result of the competition of tribes ; one of 
the leading features of man's struggle for life. It exter- 
minates or subjugates the stupid, the cowardly, the phy- 
sically weak and the politically weak. It gives the best 
parts of the earth to the nations of superior energy, ca- 
pacity, and courage. 



SEC. 156. BENEFITS OF SLAVERY, ETC. 333 

As tillage by slaves was necessary to the development 
of the highest savage culture, so war was indispensable 
to the establishment and maintenance of slavery, and to 
the compulsion under which the bondsmen submitted to 
regular and continuous muscular exertion.^ Such toil is 
extremely distasteful to the savage warrior and he has 
never submitted to it willingly. Military discipline sup- 
plied the means of coercion. 

We can easily perceive and distinctly trace many be- 
neficent influences of war in low culturesteps. It com- 
pelled the early savages to dwell together in groups ; it 
established the customs and developed the tastes of so- 
cial life. It exterminated those men who persisted in 
brutishly solitary habits, like those of anthropoid apes. 
It suggested the necessity of mutual protection by retal- 
iation. It demanded the recognition of chiefs, and gave 
them an authority which increased as battles became 
more frequent and more destructive. It compelled the 
feminine clan to give way to the stronger organization 
based on masculine descent. It made an urgent demand 
for bronze weapons after that alloy had been produced. 
All through savage life, it appears as an influence potent 
in stimulating industry, and in giving shape to social and 
political institutions. 

Sec. 156. Benefits of Slavery, etc. — Until male slaves 
appeared, there was no class that devoted itself to tillage 
that made it a study, and that obtained good crops. The 
large returns, which it secured, gave motives for strict su- 
pervision ; under the lash, steady toil began. As the food 
supply increased, population became dense. Masters, 
relieved from the task of hunting for food, gave more 
time to arms. Military discipline improved, and with it 
political organization. As slaves increased in value, can- 



334 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

nibalism decreased.^ In many respects, slavery exerted 
a good influence. 

Hereditary nobility, one of the indirect products of 
slavery, provided a body of subordinate military officials 
who had common interests with the despotic chief, and 
who had power to render him much service in peace and 
war. Its general influence is to strengthen his power 
and to make it durable. Despotism is a phase through 
which all the older and more intellectual nations have 
passed in the course of their development. 

Sec. 157. Benefits of Religion. — If we should fix our at- 
tention exclusively on the discreditable features of savage 
religion, if we should remember only the unreasonable- 
ness of its dogmas, the trickery of its priests, the credu- 
lity of its worshipers, the grave offerings, the fetishes, 
the idols, the omens, the ordeals, the poison, the human 
sacrifices, the consecrated torture, cannibalism and op- 
pression, — if we should remember only these points, we 
would conclude that savage religions were extremely 
pernicious in their influence on human life. 

But we must not restrict our attention to these matters. 
We must consider also that the early priests used a power- 
ful influence to enforce obligations of mutual fidelity, to es- 
tablish general principles for the guidance of public and 
private life, to preserve social order, to enlarge the ideas 
and to protect the rights of property, and to strengthen 
the authority of the chiefs. Mainly because ecclesiasti- 
cism has rendered such services, it has been recognized 
in every culturestep, as a valuable police institution, and 
in every age and country has been supported by public 
opinion. 

Among savages the priests are the most intellectual 
class. They have long instruction and strict subordina- 



SEC. 157. BENEFITS OF RELIGION. 335 

ation. They have advantages of training not shared by 
other men. They preserve traditional rules, ancient 
legends, and poems, and the lessons of accumulated ex- 
perience. They lay down fixed principles of ecclesiasti- 
cal discipline, and political government, and they defend 
these principles against advancing progress as well as 
against inconsiderate innovation. As Spencer says, eccle- 
siastical institutions " have been indispensable components 
of social structures from the beginning down to the pres- 
ent time."^ 

The funeral, one of the first ecclesiastical observances, 
brings the village or the clan together in a common wor- 
ship, multiplies and strengthens attachments among the 
villagers or clan members, and suspends or composes 
their quarrels. The political dominion and the ecclesi- 
astical organization keep pace with each other, in their 
onward march. The religion is as extensive as the alle- 
giance, first clannish, then tribal, then national. The 
devotees of the same clannish or tribal god cannot be 
enemies to one another ; those of different gods cannot 
be friends. The precepts of religion became the laws of 
the State, as the priests became the allies of the chiefs. 

The assertion that the general influence of the lowest 
savage religions has been beneficial, does not imply an 
acceptance of the doctrine that the end justifies the 
means, or of the still more objectionable idea that there 
is no difference between right and wrong, as seen from a 
culture-historical standpoint. It means that human nat- 
ure is imperfect and progressive ; that therefore the good 
of one culturestep becomes evil to its successor ; and 
that savage religions are adopted as ends not as means. 
We must not pronounce them predominantly perni- 
cious merely because they have ceased to harmonize with 
the ideas of a later age. 



336 A HISTORY OF MANKIND. 

Sec. 158. Uses of Evil. — We shall not justly estimate 
the beneficial influences of war, slavery and religion, in 
early culture, unless we have a correct idea of the rela- 
tion of evil in general to mankind. We are so consti- 
tuted that evil is a necessity to our intellectual and moral 
growth. It is the basis and the source of all good. Its 
absolute destruction is impossible and undesirable. It is 
an indispensable accompaniment of a progressive life. It 
is our only stimulant to exertion. It is the only spur of 
our ambition. It is the sphere of our occupation ; the field 
in which we develop our capacities and gain our triumphs. 
Without it, life would be insipid, worthless and worse 
than brutish ; it would be merely negative. It is the 
conscious struggle against evil that distinguishes the ani- 
mal from the plant. If the time ever could and should 
come for the disappearance of evil from the earth, then 
mankind would sit down in a repose equivalent to intel- 
lectual and moral death. Wants increase with the mental 
growth of humanity, but in most cases, they are slight 
evils ; and in their main characteristics, they are the pre- 
liminaries and necessary preparations for enjoyment. 

No matter how much man has, he always wants more. 
So it has always been ; so it will ever be. His needs are 
insatiable. His conflict with evil is marked by successes 
almost infinite in number, and generally inappreciably 
small in their benefits and yet beneficial. The sum of 
his encroachments on its domain is progress. Its in- 
destructible and universal character is the only guaran- 
tee that life shall never lose its interest ; that man shall 
never be without employment ; that toil shall ever find 
its reward ; that idleness and stupidity shall never be- 
come dormant influences in society; that the physical 
forces of nature shall continue to become more and more 



SEC. 158. USES OF EYIL. 33/ 

subject to man's dominion ; that the worst political, so- 
cial and ecclesiastical abuses, inherited from the past, 
shall be reformed ; that crime shall diminish ; that educa- 
tion, science, art, truth, justice, freedom, peace, kindness, 
nlutual helpfulness and careful regard for the feelings of 
others shall grow more and more potent, and that mate- 
rial, moral and intellectual progress, arm in arm with their 
congenial associate, general enjoyment, shall continue 
their glorious triumphal march, with speed increasing in 
geometrical ratio, so long as mankind shall exist. 



22 



APPENDIX. 

This appendix has three main purposes: first, to assist the 
reader in finding information, additional to that given in the text; 
second, to enable him to verify statements that may appear ques- 
tionable to him; and third, to give deserved credit to those au- 
thors who have rendered valuable service in reference to the his- 
tory of culture. 

References are made by preference, to those authors who have 
treated the customs and institutions of savage life comprehensively, 
Such are Waitz, Spencer, Lippert, Klemm, Peschel, and Wood; 
and of these all, save the last, have given numerous citations. 
When I refer to them, I refer to all their authorities. 

The books which, in the scope of their information, come the 
nearest to this first volume, are arranged ethnologically. That is, 
they take up each family or tribe separately, and tell us how they 
live and what they think. First in comprehensiveness and merit, 
among such works are those of Spencer, Waitz, Klemm, Wood, 
and Peschel. Separate branches of culture have been treated 
with much learning and original thought by Spencer, Lippert, 
Tylor, and Lubbock. There is, however, a lack of a comprehen- 
sive history ,pf savage culture, and this book is offered in the hope 
that it may aid to supply the want. 

At the end of the appendix will be found a list of the books to 
which I refer. In the citations, abbreviations will be used. Thus 
Spencer P. S. means Herbert Spencer's Principles of Sociology; 
Lubbock O. C. means Lubbock's Origin of Civilization. In most 
of the citations, volumes are meant by Roman and pages by Ara- 
bic numerals, but there are some exceptions, as in citations from 
the Bible, from Spencer's Principles of Sociology and its continua- 
tions, to which reference is made by section; from Spencer's De- 
sfriptive Sociology and Waltz's Anthropologic, which the reader 
will understand on examination, 
(338) 



APPENDIX. 339 

NOTES. 

Preface. — ^Muller S. L. ii. 4. "^"The problem of history is to 
trace the process by which the present has been evolved from the 
past." Hearn, 15. ^ I hope that the arrangement of my book into 
periods, will be found to possess some merit. Upon the import- 
ance of a correct classification of the ideas in a history of culture, 
the following passage from Flint (128) deserves attention: ''Now, 
nothing can be more important, in any attempt at a philosophical 
delineation of the course of history, than the division into periods. 
That ought of itself to exhibit the plan of the development, the 
line and distance already traversed, and the direction of the future 
movement. It should be made on a single principle, so that the 
series of periods shall be homogeneous, but on a principle so fund- 
amental and comprehensive, as to pervade the history not only as 
a whole but in each of its elements, and to be able to furnish guid- 
ance to the historian of any special development of human knowl- 
edge and life. The discovery and proof of such a principle is one 
of the chief services which the philosophy of history may be legiti- 
mately expected to render to the historians of science, of religion, 
of morality, and of art. And if it fail to render this service, that 
can only be because it has failed to accomplish its own distinctive 
and proper work, — failed to grasp and follow the thread that guides 
through the labyrinth of history, and allows the mind to trace in 
some measure, its plan and to conjecture with some degree of 
probability, its purpose. But failure is very possible, success very 
difficult. No superficial glance can detect, nor happy accident dis- 
close, the true principle of historical division, any more than of 
botanical or zoological classification." *For a history of the 
word kiiltur or cultiir (culture), as used in German literature, 
see Klemm C. W. 37. ^See definition of Industrie in Littre. 

NOTES. 

Sec. I. Man's Antiquity. — ^For evidence that man has existed 
on the earth for thousands of generations, see Lyell (A. M.), Gei- 
kie, Croll, Dawkins (C. H.), and Lubbock (P. T.), Ch. xii. In 
reference to marks of human labor found in Swiss lignite in the 
glacial period, see Dawkins E. M. 155. '•^Darwin D. M. i. 191, 
Wallace D. ^w^aitz i. 125, 151. 

Sec. 2. Simian Relations. — ^Waitz i. 106. "^Ib. iv. 321. ^Klemm 
C. G. i. 285. *Waitz i. 112. ^ lb. ^Ib. ^ Spencer P. S. 25, 
Waitz i. III. ^Peschel 80. ^Spencer P. S. 22. ^° Dawkins C. 



340 APPENDIX. 

H. 112. "Darwin D. M. Ch. i. ^^Waitz i. iii. ^^ lb. ^^Peschel 
79. i^Waitz i. III. i^Cope 286. ^^Waitz i. 120. '^'^ lb. i. no. 
^^The superior strength of the savage women as compared with 
the men, has been observed by many travelers. Kohl. (4) says 
that among the Chippeways, they are more muscular. Cooper 
(95) observes that in Polynesia, they are the best divers. Wood 
(i. 434) tells us they are the best swimmers in the Pacific islands and 
the West Indies. Emin Pasha (229) remarks that in Central Africa^ 
they carry heavier burdens. Livingstone (L. J. 196) considered 
them the best porters in South Africa. Similar testimony comes 
from Burton (G. L. 214), Du Chaillu (E. A., 76). Mohr (213), 
Houghton (100, 322), and Ernouf (270). 

In reference to the early decay of savage women, see Catlin \, 
121; Dodge O. W. I. 146; Cremony 46; Bonwick D. L. 85; 
Emin Pasha 95, 117. Berthet 482. Livingstone S. A. 142, P.. 
Muller 98. 

As to the physical peculiarities of different races, one of the best 
authorities is Quatrefages. 

Sec. 3. Size. — ^Hartman 65, Emin Pasha 3, 316. ^Spencer P, 
S. 26. ^ib. 'lb. ''lb. ^Ib. Ub. ^Ib. 

Sec. 4. Acute Senses. — ^Melville T. 78, Wood ii. 208, Bowring 
135. ^Lippert K. G. i. 73. ^Chapman i. 400. 

Sec. 5. Vitality. — ^An Indian on horseback, shot at the junction 
of the pelvis and thigh, breaking both bones, rode one hundred 
miles ; a white man would have fallen at once from the horse and 
never moved. Dodge H. G. 339. The Mexican Indian "recov- 
ers easily from wounds that would kill any European outright."" 
Tylor Anahuac 48; Cremony 257. ^Waitz i. 141. ^ lb. 142. 
^ib. ^Monteiro i. 72. For the insensibility of the North Ameri- 
can Indians to pain, see Klemm i. 264; for Alaskans, Lisiansky 
242; for Patagonians, Guinnard 75; for Polynesians, Cooper L 
194; for Australians, Latham V. M. 243; for Bechuanas, Wood \, 
325; for Damaras, lb. 340; for Guiana, lb. ii. 616. Pickering (64) 
says Polynesians never took cold till they began to wear clothes; 
and Keller (89) says of the aborigines on the bank of the Amazon, 
* ' Bathing in the river immediately after meals is a luxury invaria- 
bly indulged by all the Indians, and I never remarked that it was 
attended by any evil consequences to them." ^Winchell 178. 
'Domenechii. 295. ^Spencer P. S. i. 29. ^BaegertCh. vii. 

Sec. 6. Habits. — Waitz vi. 729; Wood i. 256. ^Cook ii. 6r, 
Melville T. 257. sj^mes 92. ^Scherzer iii. 414. 



APPENDIX. 341 

Sec. 7. Savagisrn Disappearing. — ^ For the decrease of the 
aborigines in South America and the West Indies, see Waitz iii. 
399, 449; iv, 332, 337; in the basins of the Amazon and Madeira 
Rivers, Keller 5, 11, Orton 316; for Arowaks and Caribs, Waitz 
iii. 300; for Patagonia, Guinnard 133; for Dutch Guiana, Pal- 
grave D. G. 82; Brett 496; for North America, Annual Report of 
the Smithsonian Institute for 1884-5, ii- 882, 908, 912; for Califor- 
nia, Overland Monthly, June 1888; for Alaska under Russia, Waitz 
iii. 373; for Labrador, Hind i. 85; for Mosquito Coast, Squier C. 
A. 231; for Eskimos, Spencer D. S. vi. i; for Equatorial Africa, 
Du Chaillu E. A. 41, 435, Burton G. L. 77; for Polynesia, 
Scherzer iii. 138, 225; Ellis P. R. i. 106; Waitz i. 180; for Ha- 
waii, Kalakaua 23; for Lavavai, Moerenhout i. 143; for Fiji, 
Cumming L. C. 32; for Australia, Fison and Howitt 182; for 
South Australia, Forster S. A. 426; and for all savage countries, 
Quatrefages 419, 428. '^Ballou 32. ^Green 77. ^Commissioners 
of U. S. Indian affairs, Report for 1872. HVaitz v. 149, 162. ^Ib. 
i. 455; Melville O. 239. Prichard H. M. ii. 611. ^ Dodge W. 
I. 295; Pop. Sci. Monthly, June, 1886. ^ Livingstone L. J. 42, 

Gerland (Waitz vi. 828) accuses the British Colonists in Aus- 
tralia of slaughtering the aborigines. The following passage is 
part of his denunciation: ''The Australians are destined to disap- 
pear as a race — at least all in the neighborhood of the English col- 
onies. They owe their destruction not to their own rudeness and 
incapacity for improvement, but to English civilization, which is 
pervaded not by benevolence but by the meanest and hardest 
greed, using refinement as a cloak, while leaving the ignorant ab- 
origines without help, to fall into deeper demoralization. This is 
the answer to the doubts which Wallace felt in regard to European 
culture when he compared the friendly and honest intercourse of 
the natives in the market of Dobbo with the strife and trickery of 
Europeans. Those natives were rude but not debased; we are 
debased but not rude. The soil on which the oft and loudly 
praised prosperity of the colonies blooms has been manured with 
blood and the blackest crimes. The future belongs to them. His- 
tory knows no law of moral retaliation, least of all in reference to 
the slaughtered colored man." 

Gerland has never been in Australia; Anthony Trollope, who 
was there, and is a man of close observation and good judgment, 
justifies the British colonists for their general policy (A. N. Z. i. 
74). He says the Australians cannot be civilized (C. 70, ii. 85). 



342 APPENDIX. 

Foster entertains the same opinion of them (S. A. 423). Horna- 
day (443), who had excellent opportunities to observe some of the 
Pacific islanders, says that to civilize is to exterminate them. Cre- 
mony (193) thinks the Apaches will never accept civilization. 

Mrs. H. H. Jackson's Century of Dishonor is a complaint of 
four hundred printed pages against the government and people of 
the United States for the manner in which they have treated the 
aborigines. She spent much time and labor in collecting her ma- 
terial, and she cites many authorities to silstain her accusations of 
gross and systematic bad faith and cruelty. Not having investi- 
gated her evidence carefully, I will not venture to assert that she 
is wrong; but I do say that I have no confidence in her statement 
or conclusion. I have had occasion to examine her novel Ramona^ 
written to give what she believed to be a true picture of the culture 
and the wrongs of the Mission Indians of California, and I found 
that I could not trust her, as to questions of either fact or law. 
Some of the reasons for my distrust are given in the Overland 
Monthly, June, 1888. That many and great wrongs have been, 
done to the Indians in the United States by the whites is admitted 
by all competent judges who have lived near the aborigines, but 
many and great, and probably more and greater wrongs have 
been done by the Redmen. 

The aborigines of Australia die of consumption when they are 
brought up in houses (Forster 420) as do those of California. Ov- 
erland Monthly, June, 1888. 

Sec. 8. Savage History. — The statement here made that "every 
savage tribe has remained, through its whole known career, in the 
same or nearly the same cultures tep, " should have been qualified 
so as to make it harmonize completely with the mention in section 
12 of the rise of some Malays from savagism to barbarism. It is 
true, for the last four centuries, of all savage communities whose 
history is well known to us and which have not been influenced by 
a large admixture of alien blood. 

Sec. 9. Races. — Klemm (C. G. i. 198) divides mankind into two 
races, the active and the passive. The active or white comprises 
the Aryans and Semites; the passive or colored comprises all 
others. For the former he claims strong will, mental activity, in- 
vestigating disposition, fondness for innovation, boldness in navi- 
gation and migration, readiness to overthrow old governments and 
establish new ones, ambition to secure freedom for themselves 
while subjecting others to bondage, and capacity to carry science. 



APPENDIX. 343 

philosophy and general culture to their highest forms. The passive 
race is, according to him, stationary in population, dull in mind, and 
content with inherited ideas and institutions. 

Klemm's classification has found little favor, and after forcible 
criticism it is rejected by Waitz i. 259, 387, 394. Latham, whom I 
follow, has three races, white, yellow and black. Pickering, a high 
authorit\', has four, white, brown, blackish brown and black. 
Blumenbach has five, Caucasian or white, Mongolian or yellow, 
Ethiopian or black, American or red and Malay or brown. Pritch- 
ard and Peschel have seven, and several other authorities have 
larger numbers. 

I attach little value to the classification of races on the basis of the 
shape of the skull. The dolichocephalic and the brachycephalic 
forms are found in every ethnological family, as individual vari- 
ations, and they are therefore ver^' unsafe tests of race distinction. 
The Scandinavians generally have long heads and Slavonians broad 
heads, and yet both are Ar5'an. 

Language is not a safe basis for classifying tribes in every case. 
For the number of languages see Waitz i. 279. 

The best ethnological maps known to me are those in Waitz, the 
Iconographic Encyclopedia and Bastian. 

Sec. 10. Australians, etc. — Good authorities in reference to all of 
the ethnological families are Waitz, Wood, Klemm, Peschel and 
Spencer, D. S. 

Sec. II. Negroes, etc. — Featherman has collected much infor- 
mation about the Nigritians as he terms them. 

Sec. 12. Malays, etc. — ^Fornander claims that in blood and fun- 
damental features of language the Polynesians belong to the Aryan 
family. ^For similarity' of Hovas to Polynesians in customs see 
Waitz i. 432. 

Sec. 13. Polynesians. — ^ Waitz vi. 339. Of the Tahitians Lubbock 
(P. T. 469) says. "They may be taken as representing the highest 
stage in civilization to which man has in any country raised himself 
before the discovery or introduction of metallic implements." 
This statement should be qualified by the addition "in modern 
times." The Swiss lake dwellers in the stone culturestep had 
herds and pottery, unknown to the Tahitians, and were therefore 
superior to them. 

Sec. 14. Redmen. — ^ Latham V. M. 356. Bancroft iii. 553. The 
tongue of the Otomis in Mexico is monosyllabic, and is unlike any 
other in America. Bancroft iii. 737. -Waitz iii. 57. ^ lb. i. 292. 



344 APPENDIX. 

Sec. 15. Mound- Builders, — ^Maclean M. B. 15. Something 
further about the works of the Mound-Builders may be found in the 
sections relating to fortifications and temples. The chief authori- 
ties in reference to the Mound-Builders are Maclean, Carr, Carr and 
Shaler, Jones, Lapham, Foster, and Squier and Davis. Lubbock 
P. T. Ch. viii. gives a good summary of the information. The 
Buraets of Siberia have hearths of beaten clay, similar to those 
found in the American mounds. Lubbock P. T. Ch. viii. Carr 
(M. M. V. 298) made a calculation that a Redman, with such tools 
as he had before the appearance of the white men in America, 
could, in one day, dig and carry a cubic yard of earth far enough 
for the construction of a mound 13 feet high and 40 feet in di- 
ameter. Such a mound contains 231 cubic yards and could be 
raised by one man in 231 days. Jones (170) thinks that 75 yards 
would be a year's work for an Indian. 

No cast copper in America north of Mexico. Jones, 47. The 
Mound-Builders, the same in culture and blood as the Georgia 
Indians in the XVIth century. Jones 135. Lapham 25, 26, 29. 

Sec. 16. Aleut Mounds.— ^V^^W N. W. 51. '^ lb, ^ lb. 55. */3. 81. 
5 75. 66, 70. ^/5. 80. In a private letter to me, M. Dallsays, *'With 
blazing volcanoes all along the archipelago, they [the Aleuts] could 
not but have known of fire, whether they used it or not. ' ' 

Sec. 17. Pleistocene Europeans. — ^Dawkins E. M. 155. ^ Whit- 
ney. sDa-^i^ins E. M. 205. Lippert K. G. i. 334. *Dawkins C. 
H. 341. ^ lb. E. M. 221, 222. 

Summaries of the information about the Pleistocene Europeans 
will be found in Dawkins C. H. and E. M., Lubbock P. T., Lyell 
A. M. Ch. X. and Stevens. 

As to shell mounds generally, see Stevens 193, 197. 

Sec. 18. Danish Mounds. — ^ Lyell 8-17. 

Good summaries of the information about the Danish mounds 
may be found in Lyell A. M. Ch. ii. and in Lubbock P. T. 

Sec. 19. Swiss Lake Dwellings. — The chief authorities are 
Keller, Lubbock P. T., Dawkins E. M. and Lyell A. M. Ch. li. 

Sec. 20. Fire. — ^The question whether any tribe, in modern 
times, has been ignorant of fire, has been discussed by Tylor P. C. 
Ch. ix., Lubbock P. T. Ch. xvi. -and Lippert K. G. i. 513. =? Lub- 
bock P. T. Ch. xiii. ^Lippert K. G. i. 279. ^As to kindling ap- 
paratus, see engravings in Tylor E. H. Ch. ix. and Joly 191. Flint 
and pyrites used to strike fire in Swiss lake dwellings. Joly 179. 

Volcanic fumaroles on the Solomon Islands are used now for 



APPENDIX. 345 

cooking (Guppy, 86); as are solfataras and boiling springs in many 
countries. 

Sec. 21. Non-tilling Culture. — ^ For descriptions of the methods 
of making flint knives, with illustrative engravings, see Lubbock 
P. J. Ch. iv., Evans, and Carr and Shaler. '^ Numerous prehistoric 
flint mines have been found near Brandon, England; where one 
of the shafts is thirty feet deep. A mine of chert, with a shaft six 
feet deep, in Licking County, Ohio, suppHed material for knives 
and arrowheads to the Redmen in the vicinity. ^ 

The words palaeolithic and neolithic were first used by Lubbock 

P. J. 2. 

For list of stone implements in the museums of Copenhagen and 
Stockholm, see Lubbock P. T. i6. 

For evidences of a time when the best edge tools were of stone 
in many countries, see Tylor E. H. Ch. \iii. Sayce A. E. E. 2. 

Sec. 22. Tilling Savagisni. — Marsh, in his Earth as modified by 
Man, accepts Gomara's statement that the buffalo had been tamed 
in part of North America; but we are now familiar with all portions 
of the continent in which the buffalo could live, and there is no 
trace of its domestication anywhere. There is no reason to believe 
that Gomara had any good evidence for his assertion. 

Sec. 23. Spear, Bocus, etc. — ^For description and engraving of 
the spear-sling see Wood ii. 29, 206. Bonwick D L. 43. ^For 
description of the throw-stick and the method of using it, with 
illustrative engravings, see Wood ii. 43, 706, 709. ^Waitz iii. 308. 
^Joly 232. ^Bougainville says the bolas are effective at a distance 
of 300 yards, but this is evidently a mistake for 300 feet. Darwin 
(J. R. Ch. iv.) says they can be thrown effectively 180 feet by a man 
on foot, and 240 feet by a man on horseback, in the latter case 
being aided by his greater elevation and the impetus of the run- 
ning horse. ^Klemm C. G. ii. 17. 

Methods of poisoning weapons. Stevens 259-263. 

Method of gi\'ing toughness to brittle wood intended for bows. 
Powers 375. 

Method of making arrowheads. Stevens 77-85. Powers 374. 
Twenty arrows shot in a minute. CatHn i. 32. 

Distribution of stone implements. Stevens 113-1 18, 187-192. 

Sec. 24. Clubs, etc. — ^ Tylor E. H. 205. ^Wood i. 255. ^ Ban- 
croft i. 361. *Bourke S. D. M. 250. ^ Baker N. T. 511. 
Scherzer iii. 31. ' Lippert K. G. i. 302. 

For description of the Dakota shield and method of making it, 
Catlin i. 241, 



346 APPENDIX. 

Madras Hill tribes have boomerang. Hunter 82. 

Engravings of Hawaiian weapons. Kalakaua 13. 

Sec. 25. Omnivorous. — The supposition that man is naturally a 
vegetarian does not find the least support in the customs of sav- 
ages. No tribe abstains willingly from animal food. The Chim- 
panzee is carnivorous and herbivorous. Romanes 368. 

Intense desire for fat after restriction to lean meat, Darwin T. 
R. Ch. vi. 

Sec. 26. Bread and Meat. — ^Jones 135. Herndon 76. Evans 
224. 

Wild lettuce flavored by ants. Powers 425. 

Sec. 27. Daintiness. — ^ Bancroft i. 55. Guppy 92. Living- 
stone L. J. 394. 

S'EC. 2^. Salt and Clay. — ^Waitz iii. 431. Clark 325. Catlin i. 
24. 

Sec. 29. Cannibalism. — ^Wood i. 272. ^ Dodge H. G. 419. 
^Bancroft i. 490. * Brooke i. 209. Pickering 304. ^ In regard to 
the wide prevalence of cannibalism, see Lippert K. G. ii. 279, and 
Andree 2-5. As to its existence in prehistoric times, see Geikie 
377. Bunyabunya cannibalism Trollope 66. ^Powell 129. 
'Lubbock P. J. Ch. xiii. ^Romilly 58, 59. ^ Lippert K. G. i. 
248. 

Sec. 30. Cooking. — ^Authority lost. ^Waitz vi. 53. ^ Lippert 
K. G. i. 359. * Harris 16. ^Dall T. E. N. 81. ^wilkes v. 95. 
''Authority lost. ^ Clark 115. ^ Livingstone Z. 143. ^"Catlin i. 
124, Kane 78, Clark 219, Waitz ii. 443. ^^Kohl. 319. ^'^ lb. 
^^7^.320. "Beechey ii. 399. ^^Wood ii. 148, Fletcher and Kid- 
der 188, 189. ^^Livingstone L. J. 93. ^^ Thomson A. L. i. 157. 
^^ Hooker 342. ^^ Powell 20. 20 Melville O. 338. 21 Guppy 90. 

How green maize is preserved. Kohl. 300. 

How arrowroot is prepared. Pickering 326. 

Methodof making acorn bread. Powers 150, 187. 

Description of bamboo boiling pot. Low. 37. 

Sec. 31. Meals. — The Kaffir has only one regular meal daily, an 
hour before bedtime. The only nourishment taken at other times 
is sour milk. Muller 189. 

Sec. 32, Grinding. — ^Lippert K. G. i. 292. "^Ib. ^ Schwein- 
furth ii. 424. Parkyns i. 307. 

Sec. 33 Water and Milk. — ^ Wood i. 103, ii. 208. Spencer D. 
S. iv. 43. 2 Livingstone S. A. 59, ^Wood i. 147. * Lippert K. 
G. i. 538. 



APPENDIX. 347 

Sec. 34. Beer, etc. — ^Parkyns ii. 341. "^ QAhhon lo'] . ^ Spen- 
cer D. S. iii. 3. Emin Pasha 207. * Gumming H. F. 51. 
5 Gumming L. G. i. 90. '^ Pop. Sci. Monthly, Dec. 1886, 209; St. 
Johnston 39; Barnes 49, 192. 

Sec. 35. Narcotics. — Burton (L. R. 65) says that every man in 
Ujiji carries " a diminutive pot . . . nearly full of tobacco; when 
inclined to indulge, he fills it with water, expresses the juice, and 
from the palm of his hand, snufifs it up into his nostrils, ' ' which he 
then closes with his fingers, or with pincers, for a few seconds. 
2 Gatlin i. 234, ^Tennent i. 114. Guppy (96) tried the betel and 
found nothing in it to praise. * Humboldt Gh. xxiv. ^ Waitz v. 
183. 6 Klemm G. G. i. iii. "^ Humboldt Ch. ix. « 75. ch. xxiv. 
9Featherman i. 368. ^^ Herndon 388. "Klemm G. G. i. iii. 
^2 Waitz iii. 312. ^^ Harris 323, ^^ Waitz iii. 473. ^^ Lippert K. G. i. 
625. ^6 Latham 286. ^^ Bourke O. R. ^^ Baker G. 250. 

On the method and effects of opium of smoking in Sind, see 
Burton S. R. ii. 121. 

Sec. 36. Hunting. — ^Gatlin i, 25, 76, 199. "^ lb. 253. ^ Dall 
M. L. 107. * Baker i. 455. ^ Irving A. A. 259. ^ Emin Pasha. 

Nearly all the wants of 300,000 Redraen were supplied by the 
buffalo. Catlin i. 262. 

Sec. 37. Birds. — ^ Kane 234. "^Yiok-^xva^ 18. ^ Bancroft i. 
376. ^Tylor E. H. 172. ^ lb. ^ Kane 58. "^ Wood ii. 337. ^ Hit- 
tell i. 265. ^Spencer D. S. iii. 3. Wood ii. 428. 

Tame frigate bird taught to fly down at bait and thus entice wild 
birds into the net. Forbes 33. 

Australians stretch a net across a gap, in a route taken by ducks, 
hide near it, and when ducks come along, flying above the net, 
throw a whirling boomerang above them, and imitate the cry of a 
hawk, whereupon the ducks, in their fright, fly into the net and 
are taken. Wood ii. 102. 

Sec. 38 Fishi7ig. — ^" The patent harpoon, almost universally used 
by the American whalers, in lieu of the old-fashioned article, is a 
copy in steel of bone and slate weapon which the Innuit [Eskimos] 
have used for centuries." Dall. N. W. i. 9. ^ Kohl. 330. ^ Kane 
213. ^ Bancroft i. 162. ^ Wood ii. 594. ^ Waitz vi. 728. '^ Wood 
i. 699. ^Spencer D. S. iii. 57. ^ Jones 336. ^^ lb. 545. "Pow- 
ell 174. ^'^ Lubbock P. T. 450. Baegert Gh. iii. " Romilly 133. 
Guppy 157. ^^ Wood ii. 364. ^^ Pop. Sci. Monthly, Dec. 1886, 
204. ^6 Powell 275. 1^ lb. 206. 1^ Ballou 105. ^^ Referenc e lost. 
■^'^ Jones 327. Pickering 88. '^^ Kane 254. 22Lq^ 237. 



348 APPENDIX. 

Modes of fishing. Barnes 65, 149. Guppy 151. 

Turtle killed by vertical arrow. Herndon 86. 

Sec. 39. ^^^^.— 1 Tylor .E. H. 180. 

Sec. 40. Villages. — ^Catlini. 43, 44. ^ Dawson 38. ^ Waltz v. 

71- 

Sec. 41. Huts, etc. — ^Lubbock P. J. 450. ^ Wood ii. 20. 
3 Fremont 212, Irving B. A. 259. * Pickering 30. ^ Stanley D. 
C. i. 385, 489. Waitz ii. 80. ^Kohl. 9. ■? Catlin i. 81, Clark 
373. ^Author's observation. ^Stanley D. C. i. 432. ^•'Daw- 
kins E. M. 267. 1^ Lippert K. G. ii. 204. ^^ Bancroft i. 427. 
*^ Latham 285. Nordenskiold 466. 1* Spencer D. L. v. 42. ^^ Mor- 
gan H. 71. 

No huts in portions of Malaysia. Pickering 304, 305, 306. 
Scherzer iii. 294. In Shanar, district of Hindostan, Leonowens 153. 
Among Veddahs, Baker C. 102, 104. Among Port Jackson Aus- 
tralians, Klemm C. G. i. 299. 

Sec. 42. Furniture. — ^Featherman 393. "^ lb. 560. ^Cameron 
II, 145, Baker C. 254. ^Lafitau ii, 61. ^Lippert K, G. i. 328. 

The numerous uses of bamboo. Thomson S. M. 318. 

Sec. 43. Baskets and Mats. — ^ Kane 210. 

In reference to the baskets and mats of savages, see also Waitz 
iii- 93 534- Wood i. 22. Klemm C. G. ii. 349. Tylor E. H. 
192. Bancroft i. 165 179. Foster 225, 229. Schweinfurth i. 102. 
Burton L. R. ii. 64. Royer 429. Kohl. 10. 

Sec. 44. Dogs. — ^ Galton H. F. 246, 247. ^ Waitz iii. 83. 
^Galton 108, 218, 250, 252. * Waitz iii. 394. ^Spencer D. S. iv. 
58,59. ^Galton 252. '^ lb. ^ Bonwick D. L. 222. ^Lippert K. G. 
i. 491. ^•'Pickering 108. Baegert's silence about the dog suggests 
that it did not exist there. " Lippert i. 544. 

Among the queerest pets are pythons large enough to kill and 
swallow goats or kids. Such serpents are petted by African 
women, who rub them with fat and pour fat down their throats. 
The pythons learn to spare tame animals, and go into the forest 
for wild game. Emin Pasha 339. 

Sec. 45. Pigs, etc. — ^ Pickering 76. Lippert K. G. i. 553. 

Sec. 46. Tillage.—^]. G. Muller 17, Morgan A. S. 25. ^ Laf- 
itauii. 77. ^Peschel 155, 428. ^Letourneau 21. ^Icon. Ency- 
clopedia i. 64. ^ Waitz ii. 432. '^ Herndon 88. ^ Waitz ii. 82, 83. 

Sec. 47. Implements, etc. — 1 Lubbock P. T. 463. Waitz ii. 82, 

83. 
Sec. 48. Milk-yielders. — ^ Peschel 425. ^Lubbock was the first 



APPENDIX 349 

to call attention to the value of the milk-yielding animals in re- 
ducing the drain of lactation on women. Lippert K. G. i. 243. 
^ Lippert K. G. i. 539. * Waitz ii. 83. ^ Lippert K. G . i. 509. '^ lb. 

507- 

Sec. 49. Boats. — ^ Worsaae 13. 2 Lubbock P. T. 450, O. C. 507. 
3 Powers 47. *Tylor E. H. 210. ^ Bancroft i. 166. ^ Brett 267. 
■'Burton L. R. 411. ^ Cook i. 267. ^For full description of 
method of making birch bark canoes, see Kohl. 9, and Harper's 
Magazine, K\x.%\Mi>\.,\^^^. 1*^ Waitz vi. 65. ^^ Powers 215. ^^-The 
skin boats of the Eskimos are elaborately described by Klemm 
C. G. ii. 274. ^3 Pickering 76. ^^ Ellis P. R. i. 383. ^^ Waitz 
vi. 644. ^^ Tennent i. 327. "Spencer D. S. iv. 33. 

Tahitian boat building. Stevens 69. 

Sec. 50. Pottery— ^TyXox E. H. 271. ^ Lubbock P. T. 494. 
^Tylor E. H. 274. * Peschel 168. ^Spencer D. S. xlvi. 5. 
^Woodi. 55. '^ Klemm ii. 66. ^Foster 246. Keller L. D. 143, 
220. 9 Lippert K. G. i. 325. Tylor E. H. 273. Dall T. E. N. 
80. Joly, 307. 

Sec. 51. Thread, Cloth, etc. — ^ Burton L. R. ii. 64. Schwein- 
furth i. 10.2, Waitz, iii. 93, 534, Bancroft i. 165, 179, Foster 
225, 229, Wood I, 22, Klemm C. G. ii. 349, Jones 61, Tylor 
E. H. 192, Kane 184, 210, Emin Pasha 517, Gibbon 211, 
Keller A. M. 86. 

Sec. 52. Leather. — ^Catlin i. 45, Clark 371, Stevens 550, 
Waitz iii. 96. ^ Guinnard 75. ^ Parkyns ii. 14. * Nordenskiold 
480. 5 Baker N. T. 181, Emin Pasha 236. ^ La P^rouse, ii, 41. 

Sec. 63. Traffic. — 'Burton G. L. ii. 20. ^Romilly 24. ^ Ban- 
croft i. 347, Spencer P. S. 256. 

Sec. 54. Metals. — Maclean (M. B. 87) and Foster (252, 256) 
think some of the copper ornaments and weapons of the North 
American Indians were cast, but the preponderance of evidence 
and authority is against them. The articles supposed to have been 
cast are so small and rude that the method in which they were 
formed cannot be determined. They are few and of little indus- 
trial value. No moulds, no solid rings, no articles not producible 
by hammering have been found. See Annual Report Smithsonian 
Institute for 1884-5, 7i- 

Sec. 56. Industrial Development.—^ Lyell A. M. ^ Tylor E. H. 
187. 3 lb. 188. 4 lb. 

Sec. 57. Natural Progress. — When a Bechuana first saw a ship 
he said "that certainly was never made by man." Waitz i. 457. 



350 APPENDIX. 

Sec. 58. Promiscuous Group. — ^ Morgan A. S. 364. ^ Lubbock 
O. C. Ch. iii. 3 Peschel 232. Morgan A. S. 413. * Lubbock O. 
C. Ch. iii. 5 Morgan A.. S. 430. «Lippert K. G. ii. 13. ''lb. 
15. Palgrave E. A. i. 10. ^Lippert K. G. ii. 17. ^ lb. 15, 2 
Kings xvii. 30. Lippert K. G. ii. 16. 

The following tradition was found in Australia by Fison and 
Howitt(25): "After the creation, brothers, sisters and others of 
the closest kin, intermarried promiscuously until — the evil effects 
of these alliances becoming manifest — a council of chiefs was as- 
sembled to consider in what way they might be averted, the result 
of their deliberations being a petition to the Muramura (Good 
Spirit), in answer to which he ordered that the tribe should be di- 
vided into branches and distinguished one from another by differ- 
ent names, after objects animate and inanimate, such as dogs, mice, 
emu, rain, iguana, and so forth; the members of any such branch 
not to intermarry but for one branch to mingle with another." 

Since the Australians, previous to their familiarity with the white 
men, had neither a good spirit controlling human affairs, nor chiefs 
possessing much authority, we must suspect that this tradition, in 
the shape here given to it, is of modern origin. Its chief value lies 
in the recognition of the promiscuous group. 

According to the ancient rule of Hawaii (Kalakaua 53) the 
highest rank was that of the reigning chief; second, his children by 
his sister; third, his children by his niece (presumably his sister's 
daughter) ; fourth, his children by his own daughter; fifth, his children 
by other women. This rule seems to be a remnant of the promis- 
cuous group. 

The chief authorities on the promiscuous group are Morgan A. 
S. and S. C; Lippert K. G. and G. F. ; Lubbock O. C. and 
Spencer P. S. Bachofen, who was the first to call attention to the 
subject, has little to interest readers who are familiar with later 
writers, such as Lubbock and Lippert. 

Sec. 59. Relationship Nomenclature. — The following table com- 
piled from Lubbock, who compiled from Morgan, is designed to 
show as briefly and simply as possible the progressive character of 
the systems of nomenclature in reference to a few collateral re- 
lationships. Some of Morgan's terms, copied by Lubbock, are 
here changed. Thus for male parent, father is substituted; for 
female parent, mother; for male child, son; for great or little father, 
uncle, and for little mother, aunt. The simple English word is used 
to convey the meaning of a phrase which might confuse the reader. 



APPENDIX. 



351 



The abbreviations in the table are fa for father; mo for mother; 
br for brother; so for son; co for cousin; un for uncle; an for aunt; 
np for nephew; m s for male speaking; and f s for female speaking. 



Collateral Relationship. 



Mother's brother 

Mother's brother's son. 

Father's sister 

Father's sister's son. . . . 

Father's brother 

Father's brother's son. . 

Mother's sister 

Mother's sister's son. . . 
Brother's son, m. s. . . . 

Brother's son, f . s 

Sister's son, m. s .... 
Sister's son, f. s 



K 


§ 


s 


txi 


^ 


p 



p 





3 

3 


3 




% 




■ 


p 





fa 


un 


un 


un 


un 


br 


br 


br 


br 


CO 


mo 


mo 


an 


an 


an 


br 


br 


br 


br 


CO 


fa 


fa 


un 


un 


fa 


br 


br 


br 


br 


br 


mo 


mo 


an 


an 


mo 


br 


br 


br 


br 


br 


so 


so 


so 


np 


so 


so 


so 


np 


np 


np 


so 


np 


np 


np 


np 


so 


so 


so 


.np 


so 



"^ 



un 

CO 

an 

CO 

un 

CO 

an 

CO 

np 
np 
np 
np 



A table compiled by Lubbock to show the titles given in five 
successive stages of the natural development of relationship nomen- 
clature to the father's sister, her son, her son's son, and her son's 
son's son, is here presented slightly modified : — 



Relatives, 


Father's sister. 


Her son. 


Her grandson. 


Her great-grandson. 


Stage I 


mother 

aunt 

aunt 

aunt 

aunt 


brother 

brother 

brother 

cousin 

cousin 


.son 

son 

nephew 

nephew 

aunt's grandson 


grandson 
grandson 
grandson 
grandson 
aunt's great-grandson 


Stage II 

Stage III 

Stage IV 

Stage V 



In the first stage, we have the titles of the Hawaiians and Mo- 
hawks; in the second, those of the Micwacs; in the third, those of 
the Burmese; in the fourth, that of the Fijians; and in the fifth, that 
of the modern Euraryans. The comparison of these five stages 
proves the derivation of the family, as constituted now in civilized 
society, from the consanguine group. If the change had been in 
the contrary direction, we should have had systems of nomefi- 
clature like those on the following table from Lubbock (O. C. 199). 



Relatives . 


Father's sister. 


Her son. 


Her grandson. 


Her great-grandson. 


Stage I 


aunt 

mother 

mother 

mother 

mother 


cousin 

cousin 

brother 

brother 

brother 


aunt's grandson 
aunt's grandson 
aunt's grandson 
nephew 
son 


aunt's great-grandson 
aunt's great-grandson 
aunt's great-grandson 
aunt's great-grandson 
grandson 


Stage II 

Stage III 

Stage IV 

Stage V 



The first and last of these stages are found in modern tribes, but 
the first instead of being found among the lowest savages is among 
civilized people, and the last instead of being among the highest in 



352 APPENDIX. 

culture is among the lowest. The second, third and fourth, which 
should have been the connecting links in the march of retrogression, 
are not found anywhere. 

If the matrimonial system had changed from strict monogamy 
among primitive savages to the loose relations found in low culture 
by many modern observers, we should find the title of father given 
to the mother's brother, with that of cousin to his son. But such a 
combination is not to be found anywhere in the world. The 
change must have been made then in the other direction. 

Sec. 6o. Feminine Clan. — ^ Morgan A. S. 149. 

The chief authority on the feminine clan is Morgan, who first 
called attention to it, discovered its wide prevalence, and collected 
a great mass of evidence to prove its extensive prevalence among 
savages. His leading work on the subject is Ancient Society . Other 
works worthy of attention are Lubbock's Origin of Civilization^ 
which gives a good summary of Morgan's ideas, Starcke's Primi- 
tive Family, and Lippert's Kulturgeschichte and Geschichte der 
Fainilie. 

Sec. 61. 7b/^w.—i Morgan A. S. 161. Ub. 168. 

On this subject Morgan is the leading authority. 

Sec. 62. Australian Exogam,y. — ^ Fison and Howitt 2)^. 

The highest authority is Fison and Howitt' s Kamilaroi. 

The following expression of opinion by Spencer (P. S. 50) de- 
serves consideration, though I am convinced it is unsound. The 
' ' complex system of [Australian] relationships and consequent 
interdicts on marriage, . . . could not possibly have been framed 
by any agreement among them, as they now exist, but . . . are 
comprehensible as having survived from a state in which these 
tribes were more closely united, and subordinate to some common 
rule. Such also is the implication of circumcision and the knock- 
ing out of teeth, which we find among them as among other races 
now in the lowest stages. For when we come hereafter to deal, 
with bodily mutilations we shall see that they all imply a subordi- 
nation, political or ecclesiastical or both, such as these races do 
not now exhibit." To me, it is clear that the exogamous system 
of Australia was an offshoot of its feminine clans, which could not 
have arisen or prospered under a strong political or ecclesiastical 
dominion. I deny that bodily mutilations imply an extensive sub- 
ordination. 

Sec. 63. Fem.inine Clan Survivals. — ^ Reade 208. ^ Low 265. 
^Lippert K. G. ii. 58. ^ lb. 61. ^ lb. 58. ^ Lubbock O. C. 147. 



APPENDIX. 353 

'Lippert K. G. ii. 57. ^ Tb. ^ Id. 58. '^ lb. sy. '' lb. 59- '' lb. 3S. 
Waitz vi. 654. ^^Featherman 411. ^*/(^. 469. ^'^ lb. 41S. ^^ Waitz 
V. 107. ^T Lippert K. G. ii. 48. ^^ /^. 56. ^^Ezek xxii. 2. '^^ Gen. 
xxiv. 53. ^^ Judges viii. 19. "Smith 119. 

The Waswahili woman owns the home, divorces her husband 
whenever she sees fit, and seldom waits long before she takes 
another. Such changes are not rare. New. 12, 67. 

In Balonda land, the wife owns the dwelling; the husband moves 
to her village; he can make no contract without the wife's approval ; 
he must supply his mother-in-law with fire-wood so long as she 
lives, and he must work in the fields. 

The leading authorities on the subject of this section are the 
same as those in the feminine clan, and in addition to them W. 
Robertson Smith's Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, and 
Wilken's Matriarchal bei den Arab em. 

Sec. 64. Masculine Clan. — In reference to the masculine clan, see 
Morgan A. S. 155-174 and 362-364; and Fison and Howitt 241, 242, 
274. The leading authorities are the same as for the feminine clan. 

Sec. 65. Capture. — ^Lubbock O. C. 112, 115, 124. Wood ii. 
556. Featherman, 422. McLennan A. H. 18-80. 

Sir George Grey, as quoted by McLennan (60) says : ' * The life 
of a young woman at all celebrated for beauty [in Australia] is 
generally one continued series of captivity to different masters, of 
ghastly wounds, of wanderings in strange families, of rapid flights, 
of bad treatment from other females, among whom she is brought 
a stranger by her captor; and rarely do you see a form of unusual 
grace and elegance, but it is marked and scarred by the furrows of 
old wounds, and many a female thus wanders several hundred miles 
from the home of her infancy, being carried off successively to dis- 
tant and more distant points." 

F. McLennan [Studies in Ancient History) is the author who 
has given most prominence to the system of capture in early mat- 
rimony, and after him Lubbock O. C. Lubbock does not go so far 
as McLennan. 

Sec. 66. Polyandry. — ^ Spencer P. S. 297-303, Latham D. E. 
ii. 463. ^Hutchinson 63. ^ Lubbock O. C. loi. Featherman 446, 
Waitz V. 106. The best authority on polyandry in Thibet is A. 
Wilson Ch. xxiv. 

Sec. 67. Polygyny. — ^Lippert K. G. i. 76, Waitz i. 120, 135, ii. 
120, iii. 108, Buckle P. W. iii. 39, Burton G. L. i. 78, 79 ii. 215, John- 
ston 425, Seeman 191, Reade 205, Bonwick D. L. 76, Seeman i. 136, 

23 



354 APPENDIX. 

Dodge H. G. 313, Livingstone L. J. 55, Gray 185. ^ Baker N.T. 263. 

Sec. 68. Girl's Position. — ^ Waitz vi. 123. ^Spencer D. S. iv. 
47. ^ Featherman 733. '* lb. 440, Lubbock O. C. Cii. iii. Waitz i. 
108, Spencer D. S. iv. 27. 

Sec. 69. Wife's Position. — ^ Reade 309. ^ Waitz ii. 433, Spencer 
P. S. 280, Du Chaillu E. A. 197, 265. 

Malthus (i. 39) observes that **one of the general characteristics 
of the savage is to despise and degrade the female sex. Among 
most of the tribes in America, their condition is so peculiarly griev- 
ous that servitude is a name too mild to describe their wretched 
state. A wife is no better than a beast of burden. While the man 
passes his days in idleness or amusement, the woman is condemned 
to incessant toil. Tasks are imposed upon her without mercy, and 
services are received without complacence or gratitude. There are 
some districts in America where this state of degradation has been 
so severely felt that mothers have destroyed their female infants to 
deliver them at once from a life in which they were bound to such 
a miserable slavery." 

Sec. 70. Marriage, etc. — ^ ElHs P. R. i. 271. 2 Waitz iii. 105. 
^ Spence D. S. iii. 2. ^ Bancroft i. 437. ^ Parkman Preface. ® Waitz 
i. 114. ^ Cook ii. 220. ^ Lubbock O. C. 55, Spencer P. S. 280, Har- 
ris 247. 9 Burckhardt B. W. 64. 1® Wilken 24. ^^ Du Chaillu E. A. 
118. ^"^ Lubbock O. C. 55, Hunter 77. ^^ Spencer D. L. v. 42. 

Sec. 71. Brother Adoption. — The chief authority is Trumbull, who 
gives many citations. 

Sec. 72. Couvade.—^ Lubbock O. C. 16. ^ ji,^ is. ^ Klemm C. 
G. ii. 83. ^ Ploss M. K. 46. ^ lb. \\. ^2 Sam xii. 16. ^ lb. 22. 
^Lippert F. 215. 

Sec. 73. Infancy, etc. — ^ Waitz, Klemm and nearly all authors 
who have described savage life. ^ Clark 297. ^ Waitz i. 178. ^ lb. 
V. iii. s Wilkes v. 102. ^ Waitz v. 108. ^ Lippert K. G. i. 208. 
« Klemm C. G. ii. 83. ^ Lubbock O. C. 34. 

Sec. 74. Son-in-law Shyness. — ^ Turner 298. 

The leading authorities here are Lubbock O. C. Ch. i. and 
Tylor. 

Sec. 75. Womanhood. — ^Abbott 371. ^ Waitz i. no. ^ Holub i. 
302. * Powers 85. ^ Orton 322. « Bancroft i. 411. ' lb. 82. 

Sec. 76. Modesty. — ^ Walker 23, Wood i. 411, Livingstone E. Z. 256, 
Thomson A. L. i. 271, Waitz i. 359, Klemm C. G. i. 185, 302, Guin- 
nard 116, Lippert K. G. i. 433, Gibbon 295. 

Sec. 77. Nudity. — ^ Monteiro ii. 187, Klemm i. 302. 



APPENDIX. 355 

In some Polynesian Islands, the women smear themselves with 
the glutinous dark sap of a tree, and allow it to dry on the body 
and remain there for six days. When washed, the skin is much 
fairer than before. Wood ii. 386. 

Sec. 78. Cldthi7ig. — ^ The author's personal observation. '^ Spen- 
cer D. S. vi. 60. ^ Klemm ii. 41. 

Sec. 79. Ornaments. — ^ Schweinfurth i. 282. ^ Stanley D. C. ii. 319. 
^ Schweinfurth i. 153. * Spencer D. S. v. 57. ^ Pop. Sci. Monthly 
Sept. 1885. 

Sec. 80. Hair Dressing. — ^Wood i. 505. "^ lb. 531. ^ lb. 689. 
^ Livingstone S. A. 624. ^ Turner 308. ^ Schweinfurth ii. 7, Clark 
201, Bon wick D. L. 109, Keate 29, Mouatt 305. 

Clark thinks that the eyelashes may be pulled out because paint 
sticks in them. 

Sec. 81. Oil and Paint. — Spencer C. I. 417, Wood i. 362. 

Sec. 82. Tattoo. — ^ Among the Redmen and Karens. ^ Among 
the Maoris. ^ Among the Congoese, Spencer D. S. iv. 23. * Bur- 
ton L. R. ii. 63. 5 Waitz v. 66. ^ /^, vi. 41. ' pioss K. 338. ^ Lub- 
bock O. C. 63. 9 Stanley D. C. ii. 285. ^^ Wood ii. 225. ^^ Baker 
N. T. 273, Guppy 135. 

Process-oilattooing in Samoa, Barnes 161. 

Sec. 83. Mutilations. — ^ Spencer D. S. iv. 23, Bock 474, Latham 
V. M. 150, Schweinfurth i. 294. ^ Lippert K. G. i. 440. ^ Holub ii. 
259. * Livingstone L. J. 372, 373. ^ Forbes 313. ^ Latham V. M. 
150. 'Bancroft i. 334. ^Hornaday 393. ^ Waitz v. 130. ^°Ploss 
K. 312. ^^Authorities on skull flattening: Spencer D. S. vi. 19. 
Bancroft i. 180, Powell 221, Hall 568, Featherman i. 28, D'Albertis 
ii. loi, Berthet 181, Barnes 33, Thorburn 146. ^^ Nose flattening. 
Ploss K. Ch. xiv, Spencer D. S. iii. 10, 11; iv. 18, Berthet 183. 
Barnes 33. ^^ Spencer D. S. iv. 23. Monteiro i. 267. ^^ Lippert K. 
G. i. 413. ^^ Bonwick D. L. 27. ^^ Harris 298, ^'Cameron 208. 
^^ Jones 86. ^^ Schweinfurth i. 297. ^o Button S. R. i. 326. ^i Cook 
i. 263. 22 Livingstone L. J. 232. 24Spencer D. S. iii. 61. ^^ Waitz 
vii. 770, 780, 26, lb. 781. 

For mutilations generally, see Spencer 357-367. 

Those who desire to study the authorities in reference to mutila- 
tions, some of which are not named here, may examine the follow- 
ing : Ploss K. Ch. xiv, Spencer C. I. 362, Waitz i. iii, ii. 251, 516, 
v. 18, 164, 560, 561, vi. 770, 780, 789, Wallace A. 358, Bonwick 
D. L. 121, 499, Burckhardt N. 331, 331, lb. P. 434, Baker N. T. 



35^ APPENDIX. 

124, Orting 326, 322, Burton G. L. i. 83, Emin Pasha 95. Anthro- 
pological Society Memoirs i. 327, 328, Cameron 240, Cook i. 327. 

Sec. 85. Capacity, — ^ Tylor A. 60. ^ Lippert K. G. i. 92. ^ Spen- 
cer P. S. 41. ^ lb. 43. ^ lb. ^ lb. ^ lb. 51. 8 Authority lost. 
9 Spencer P. T. 34. ^^ lb. 33. ^^ lb. ^^ Lubbock P. T. 513. ^'^ Spen- 
cer D. S. iv. 32. 

The following paragraph from Waitz (i. 479) seems worthy of at- 
tention : — 

'* Man has no natural tendency to progress. The modern idsalis- 
tic doctrine of the development of his mind, under the influence of 
its independent and innate impulses, is a fiction which flatters his 
vanity though it defies leading facts in the history of his culture. 
His thought unquestionably created and maintained civilization, 
but this thought is not spontaneous, in either its beginning, its 
continuance, nor is it the function of a single individual, but is the 
result of the competing, conflicting and reacting struggles of hu- 
man society, influenced by its surroundings and nurtured and ma- 
tured by a controlling historical destiny. ' ' 

In this passage Waitz begins with a denial of man's innate capacity 
to develop culture, and ends with the admission that progress is the 
necessary product of ' ' the struggles of human society, influenced by 
its surroundings." Man is so constituted mentally that he must 
organize society. The question of what he might have been as a 
solitary animal independent of a material environment has no re- 
lation to historical experience or practical philosophy. 

Sec. 86. Preponderant Present. — ^ Spencer P. S. 41. "^ lb. '^ lb. 
* Lippert K. G. i. 7. ^ I^- ^ /^- ' I^. 39. 

Sec. 87. Early Maturity.— ^Uppevt K. G. i. 228. ^ lb. 61. 
3 Spencer P. S..48. * /b. ^ lb. Waitz ii. 235. 

Sec. 88. Jollity. — ^ Waitz ii. 103, 135, vi. 106, Skertchly 191. 
2 Lubbock O. C 517. ^ Melville T. 169. 

Sec. 89. Politeness. — ^ Pop. Sci. Monthly Dec. 1886, p. 209. 

2 Baegert Ch. vii. He says the Lower Californians have no saluta- 
tions. ^Spencer P. S. 346. * Monteiro i. 241. ^ Peschel 478, 
Waitz iii. 136, Crantz i. 271. 

Sec. 90. Salutations. — ^ Spencer P. S. 386. ^ Featherman i. 439. 

3 Spencer D. S. iii. 12. * lb. iii. 3. ^ Spencer P. S. 385. ^ lb. 383. 
''lb. 384. ^ lb. D. S. iii. 17. » Lubbock O. C. 39. !«> Spencer D. 
S. iv. 28. 11 Spencer P. S. 387. ^'^3. ^^Wood ii. 267. 1* Bancroft 
i. 777. 15 Spencer P. S. 389. ^^ Waitz iii. 59. ^^ Spencer D. S. iv. 
17, Peschel 237. ^^Klemm C. G. ii 304. ^^Rein 426. ^ojagor 



APPENDIX. 357 

i6i. 21 Wood ii. 230, Spencer D. S. iii. 7. ^^Wood i. 523, 526. 
23 Waitz iii. 468. 2* Bancroft i. 68. ^s Spencer D. S. iv. 21. ^e Hesse- 
Warteg 260. ^^ Wood i. 562. 
The best authority on savage salutations is Spencer P. S. 392- 

398. 

Sec. 91. Educatiofi. — Dodge H. G. 324. 

Sec. 92. Morality. — ^ Peschel 280. ^ Spencer E. I. 646. ^ lb. 
^ lb. D. S. iv. 23. 5 Waitz vi. 303. ^Lippert K. G. i.93. ^ Low 248. 
* Waitz iii. 389 

Buckle's assertion, that there has been no advance in moral ideas 
in thousands of years, deserves mention here. He says (H. C. i. 
129) ** there is, unquestionably, nothing to be found in the world, 
which has undergone so little change as those great dogmas of 
which moral systems are composed. To do good to others; to 
sacrifice, for their benefit, your own wishes; to love your neighbor 
as yourself; to forgive your enemies; to restrain your passions; to 
honor your parents; to respect those who are set over you; these, 
and a few others, are the sole essentials of morals. But they have 
been known for thousands of years, and not one jot or tittle has 
been added to them by all the sermons, homilies and text-books 
which moralists and theologians have been able to produce." 

Buckle's "sole essentials of morals " which "have been known 
for thousands of years" were, for many centuries, understood to 
justify slavery, hereditary nobility, hereditary priesthood, despotic 
government, press censorship, religious persecution, prohibition of 
educating slaves and warfare for conquest. To assert that the gen- 
eral condemnation and overthrow or diminution of these great 
evils, in recent times, has not been in the aggregate, a great addi- 
tion to morality is equivalent to saying that the people have no 
right to political or intellectual freedom. The science of ethics is 
like every other attribute of humanity, in one respect at least; it 
grows. It has grown in every phase of culture. 

Darwin (D. M. ch. iv.) expresses the opinion that morality 
grows, and cites Lecky H. M. 

Sec. 93. Amusements. — ^ Monteiro ii. 274. ^ Klemm ii. 113. 
2 3. 109. * lb., lb. Moerenhout ii. 151. ^ Wood ii. 490. ® Gill S. S. 
65. ^ Dodge H. G. 333. ^Klemm ii. no. ^Wood ii. 378. Ellis 
P. R. i. 221. 

Sec. 94. Poetry, etc—^Wsxiz vi. 92. ^ Spencer D. S. vi. 10. 
For samples of oratory of the Tongans, see Waitz vi. loi; for ora- 
tory of Redmen, ib. iii. 141 ; for Lenape legends, Klemm ii. 183; 



358 APPENDIX. 

for Maori legends, Bonwick D. L. 190; for Hawaiian legends, 
Kalakaua 69-507; for poetry of Lenape, Klemm ii. 182; of Malag- 
asies, Spencer D. S. iii. 62; of Khonds, ib. v. 56; of Karens, ib. 
57; of Tahiti, Waitz vi. 120, and of New Zealand, Waitz vi. 140. 
^ Scherzer V. N. iii. 128. * Waitz vi. 75. 

Sec. 95. Music. — ^ Turner 125. ^ g_ Forster i. 291. ^ Wood 
i. 296. * Martineau Ch. iv. ^ Spencer D. S. iii. 62. ^ Wood i. 
230. "^ G. Forster i. 429. ^ Wood i. 414. ^ Ib. 295. ^^ Spencer 
D. S. V. 56. 1^ Ellis P. R. i. 198. ^^ Waitz vi. 171. ^^ Guppy 141. 

For notes of savage airs, see Wood L. i. 293. Klemm ii. 216. 
Schweinfurth ii. 75. Dodge O. W. I. 355. 

Sec. 96. Medicine and Surgery. — ^ For Patagonian cure of 
croup, see Guinnard 147. ^ Waitz iii. 82. ^Wilkes iv. 464. 
^Bancroft i. 245. ^ Guppy 178. He quotes Aitken's Medicine, 
6th Edition i. 859, to show that syphilis existed in prehistoric 
France. For its existence among the Mound-Builders, see Maclean 
M. B. 146; for Australia before arrival of whites, see Klemm i. 785. 
6 Livingstone L. J. 56. ^Forbes 69. s parkyns ii. 224. ^Spencer 
D. L. iv. 34; ^'^ Ib. 35. 1^ Waitz iii. 226. ^^ ^ood i. 560. 
i^Featherman i. 398. ^* Guppy 166. ^^^altz iii. 399. Ellis P. R. 
iii. 43. ^^Cartailhac 83. ^'' Ib. 87. ^^Jarves. ^^ Waitz ii. 464. 
^® Cook ii. 124. 

For a very remarkable remedy for tetanus, see Waitz (vi. 398) , 
who cites D'Urville as his authority and Klemm (iv. 394), who 
obtains his information from Mariner. 

The Monbuttoos smear the juice of the caoutchouc plant over the 
skin where affected by a dry cutaneous disease. Emin Pasha 443. 

Sec. 97. Vocabulary. — ^Max Muller S. L. i. 383. ^ Ib. i. 353. 
"A complex train of thought can no more be carried on without 
the aid of words, whether spoken or silent, than a long calculation 
without the use of figures or algebra." Darwin D. M. 86. ^ Ib. 
i. 368. Romanes (430) thinks that speech "began with sentence- 
words in association with gesture-signs." Adam Smith thought 
first words were verbs; Dugald Stewart argued that they were 
nouns. Max Muller i. 41. Sayce (I. S. L. ii. 77) says, "Language 
is thus of inteijectional origin, helped by the imitative instinct, and 
language, in the course of its development, created and moulded 
thought." Elsewhere {ib. loi) he says, " the further back we can 
trace a language, the poorer it seems to be." * Max Muller, S. L. 
i. 86, 117. Featherman 300, 639. ^ Max Muller, S. L. i. 266. ^ Ib. 
S. L. i. 265. 7 Ib. ii. 285. 8 Lippert K. G. i. 141. » Lubbock P, 



APPENDIX. 359 

T. 574. ^o lb, "Bonwick D. L. 160. ^^ Lubbock P. T. 574. 
isLippert K. G. i. 141. ^* Bonwick D. L. 160. ^^Lippert K. G. 
i. 139, 140. ^^ lb. ^7 Peschel 116, 117. ^^Max Muller S. L. ii. 355. 
'^ lb. 35. 20 Lubbock O. C. 440. '^ lb. 439. ''■lb. 438. ^sspen- 
cer D. S. vi. 56. "Fornander i. 157. ^^Xylor E. H. 165. Pow- 
ell 255, Clark 27. 

Sec. 98. Somids and Signs. — ^ Darwin J. R. 206, Sayce I. S. L. 
i. 284. '' Spencer D. S. iv. 36. ^ Tylor P. C. 153. Featherman 
i. 181. *Max Muller S. L. ii. 39. ^Spencer iii. 46. ^Lubbock 
O. C. 518. Bonwick D. L. 152. ^ Peschel 114. ^Lippert K. G. 
142. 9 Max Muller S. L. ii. 177. ^° Lubbock P. T. 450. ^^Max 
Muller S. L. ii. 202. ^- Lippert K. G. i. 160. ^^ Spencer D. S. 
iii. 45. ^*75. 44. ^^ Tylor P. C. 148. ^^ Lippert K. G. i. 160. 
" Tylor E. H. 144, 188. ^^ Featherman i. 654. ^^ Ellis W. A. L. 
76. 20 lb. 21 Melville T. 256. '■' Spencer D. S. iii. 44- '' lb- 45- 
2<Lyell, A. ii. 275. ^agpencer D. S. 169. ^^ Tylor P. C. 149. 
27 1 .i ppert K. G. i. 160. ^s Xylor E. H. 45. 

The Annamitic sentence consisting of " Ba ba ba ba," is from 
Max Muller S. L. ii. 39. 

Sec. 99. Grammar. — ^ Max Muller S. L. i. 2S8. ^ Bonwick D. 
L. 147, Sayce (I. S. L. i. 375) says, "If the excellence of a lan- 
guage is to be decided by the number and variety of its grammati- 
cal forms, the palm will be borne off rather by the Eskimos or the 
Cherokees than by the dialects of Greece and Rome." J. L. Wil- 
son (240) tells us that no language in the world is capable of 
greater precision in expression than that of Southern Guinea. Ac- 
cording to Burton (G. L. i. iii) there are from 1,200 to 1,500 deriva- 
tives from one verb in the ]\Ipongwe tongue. Waitz (i. 314) ob- 
serves "that the grammatical construction of the tongues of the 
rudest tribes has a perfectly defined and strongly impressed regu- 
larity, as now universally admitted," The complexity in the inflex- 
ions of the verbs is often accompanied by remarkable poverty in 
the nouns. For this reason there is great difficulty among some 
Australians, as Wallace tells us (A. 51), in expressing many ideas 
common among civilized people. In such a tongue there is no 
simple nominative. The noun instead of being general is special- 
ized by such limitations as that it is staying in, going to or coming 
from a place. 

Max Muller (O. R. 68) says: "Languages which have cases to ex- 
press nearness to an object, movement alongside of an object, 
approach towards an object, but which have no purely objective 



3 60 APPENDlk. 

case, no accusative, may be called rich, no doubt, but their riches 
is truly poverty. " This remark applies also " to their dictionary. 
It may contain names for every kind of animal; again for the same 
animal when it is young oi* old, njale or female; it may have differ- 
ent words for the foot of a man, a horse, a lion, a hare; but it prob- 
ably is without a name for animal in general, or even for such con- 
cepts as member or body. There is here, as elsewhere, loss and 
gain on both sides." 

Sec. 100. Rapid Change. — ^ Spencer D. S., iv. 36. ^ Max Muller, 
S. L. i. 62. 3 73. 4 it,^ 36. 5 /^ 43 6 Peschel 104. -^ Feather- 
man i. 594. 8 Latham V. M. 262. 

Sec. ioi. Intellectual Development, — Dr. Ferguson (Max Muller 
S. L. i. 357) says, **The speculative mind, in comparing the first 
and last steps of the progress of language, feels the same sort of 
amazement with a traveler who, after rising insensibly on the slope 
of a hill, comes to look from a precipice of an almost unfathoma- 
ble depth to the summit of. which he scarcely believes himself to 
have ascended without supernatural aid." Romanes (300) ob- 
serves that the anthropology proves that men have come from sev- 
eral or many distinct sources. That many peculiarities of speech 
had a local origin may be granted. Romanes (373) quotes the fol- 
lowing sentence from Sayce : " When we remember the inarticulate 
clicks which still form part of the Bushmen's language, it would 
seem as if no line of division could be drawn between man and 
beast, even when language is made the test." That statement seems 
to imply that speech is as old as humanity and must have had a 
common origin with it. The grammar of a child just beginning to 
speak is like that of the Chinese. 

The same author (258) says, "That the existing languages of 
the earth did originate in more than one centre is now the almost 
unanimous belief of competent authorities." In Sayce (I. S. L. i. 
73) we read that, * * The languages of the world cannot be carried 
back to a single source. There are at least as many original lan- 
guages as existing families of speech." Notwithstanding the high 
authority of Sayce and Romanes, I must remark not only that I 
have seen no convincing evidence to prove that point, but that I 
think no such evidence can be produced until it is shown that the 
different races of men are not descended from the same original 
stock. The black man came from the beast; the yellow man from 
the black; the white from the yellow; and the languages of the 
yellow and white men from the primitive speech of the primitive 
black men. This is the natural course of growth. 



APPENDIX. 361 

Max Muller (N. R. 321) says: "I hold as strongly as ever that 
every inflectional language must have passed through an agglutina- 
tive stage, and that this agglutination is always preceded by the 
isolating stage." 

Sayce (I. S. L, i. 75) remarks that, " The continued existence of 
isolating like the Chinese or of agglutinative tongues like the Mag- 
yar and the Turkish shows that the development is not a necessary 
one." Romanes (253) quotes that sentence and approves it; and 
I must venture to express dissent. The growth of the typical 
man to a height of four feet or more is a physical necessity of his 
nature, notwithstanding the fact that some dwarfs stop growing 
when they reach a height of two feet. The rule is determined by 
the general, not by the exceptional facts. Progress is a necessary 
feature of human life in language as well as in other departments. 

Sec. 102. Headless Groups. — ^ Spencer P. S. 205. ^ lb. ^ lb. 

Sec. 103. Freedom. — MVard ii. 233. Hellwald i. 334. '-^Lub- 
bock O. C. 446. 

Sec. 104. Unstable Headship. — ^ Spencer P. S. 542, 

Sec. 105. Stable Headship. — This subject is well discussed in 
Spencer P. L. 

Sec. 107. Assemblies, etc. — ^ Spencer P. S. 464. 

Sec 108. Savage Cojifederacies. — ^ Morgan A. S. 70, 129, 130, 
136, 143, H. 37. '^ lb. 132, 140. ^ Hesse-War teg 223. *Waitz v. 
187. 

Sec. 109. Retaliation. — ^ Spencer P. S. 466. ^ lb. 533. 

Sec. no. Retaliation Restricted. — ^ Num. ii. 30-31. ^ Koran ii. 
17. Among the Apaches, according to Cremony (293), the avenger 
challenges the murderer to mortal combat in open and fair fight. 
Such a method of settlement is without a parallel elsewhere, and 
perhaps the statement is an incorrect inference from some excep- 
tional case. ^Spencer D. S. iv. 22. *Jarves 59. Wood ii. 329. 
Spencer D. S. iii. 12. Waitz iii. 127. ^Icon. Encyclopedia i. 138. 
^Featherman 455, 581, 603. Peschel 239. ''Spencer P. S. 523. 

Sec. 112. Succession. — ^Spencer D. S. iv. 7. ^ Featherman i. 
104. ^ Moerenhout ii. 13, * Featherman i. 185. 

Sec. 113. Ordeals. — ^Spencer D. S. iii. 15. KrapfEastAf. 174. 
'^ lb. 173. ^Jarves 39. * Spencer D. S. iii. 14. ^ Brooke 331. 
*Wood ii. 511. 

Sec. 114. Property. — ^Spencer D. S. v. 36. ^ Waitz v. 187. 
^BourkeS. D. 135. * Waitz vi. 224. ^ lb. 225. 

Sec. 115. Slavery. — HVaitz i. 211. "^ lb. ii. 469. ^ Burton* L. 
R. ii. 1S9. Richardson ii. 205. * Spencer D. S. iv. 23. 



362 APPENDIX. 

Sec. 116. Nobility. — ^ Spencer P. S. 461. 2\Yaitz vi. 200. ^ lb. 
V. 172-175. * Du Chaillu A. L. 420. 

Sec. 117. Political Development. 

Sec. 118. War. — ^Woodii. 207. ^ Jones 7. 

Sec. 119. Battle. — ^Wood i. 356. ^Waitz vi. 744-746. ^ lb. vi. 
147. ^Skertchly 455. ^Stanley D. C. i. 4o3. ^Waitz iii. 150. 
"^Ib. iii. 151. 8 Dodge H. G. 275, lb. O. W. I. 145. Kane 80. 

Sec. 120. Trophies. — Spencer P. S. 

Sec. 121. Fortifications. — For descriptions of the fortifications 
of the Mound-Builders, see Maclean M. B. 

Sec. 122. Initiation — ^ Catlin i. 21. ^ This weight is the author's 
guess, made many years after seeing such a skull. The weights 
vary much, and the heaviest were doubtless preferred. ^ Dodge 
H. G. 257, 260. Catlin i. 233. Pop. Sci. Monthly, June, 1886. 
Capt. A. W. Corliss, U. S. A., who had been stationed for years in 
the territories of the Dakotas, told the author that their mode of 
initiation bore more resemblance to that of the Cheyennes, as de- 
scribed by Dodge, than to that of the Mandans. For Blackfoot 
initiation, see Pop. Sci. Monthly, Aug. 1889. For Dakotas, Catlin i. 
178, Long i. 276, Clark 71, 361. For Crows, ?^. 135. ForHidatsas, 
ib. 194. For Arickarees ib. 196. For Poncas, ib. 363. For other 
tribes, e<^. 73. For Chippe ways. Kohl 228. *Waitziii. 149. ^ Ib. 328. 
^Ploss 427. ^ Robinson 173. ^ Woodii. 516. ^ Klemm C. G. ii. 113. 
^"Latham V. M. 240. ^^ Bancroft i. 735. ^^ Spencer D. S. vi. 57. 
'^^ Ib. V. 16. ^* Parkyns ii, 219, Baker N. T. 125. ^^Waitz i. 390. 
Livingston S. A. 164, Wood i. 325. ^^Waitz iii. 389, Spencer D. 
S.vi. 56. 17 Spencer D. S. vi. 58. i^Woodii. 616. ^^ Burckhardt 
N. 397. 20Romilly32. ^^ Lafitau i. 297-300. ^^Z^^. 303. ^^ Spencer 
D. S.vi. 13.20. 

Kohl (132) says the Chippeways have a severe initiation for 
priests. 

Sec. 123. Spirits. — ^Lippert K. G. i. 125, Spencer P. S. 146. 
2Waitz i. 363, Lippert S. C. ^ Spencer D. S. iv. 18. * Feather- 
man i. 51. ^Lubbock P. T. 437. ^ Ib. i. 217. ^ Wood i. 348. 
^Ib.'i. 2S7. ^LubbockO. C. 234. i<» Spencer P. S. 162. i* Feath- 
erman 82. ^^ Wilson 395, Tylor E. H. 7. 

The chief argument to prove that the lowest savages have no re- 
ligion, has been made by Lubbock. He says (O. C. 208), '' If the 
mere sensation of fear and the recognition that there are probably 
other beings more powerful than oneself, are alone sufficient to 
constitute a religion, then we must, I think, admit that religion is 



APPENDIX. 363 

general to ths human race. But when a child dreads the darkness, 
and shrinks from a lightless room, wa must never regard that as an 
evidence of religion. Moreover, if this definition be adopted, we 
can no longer regard religion as peculiar to man." 

Although probably not so intended, every sentence in that para- 
graph misrepresents the question under consideration. The feel- 
ing to be accounted for is not fear but fear of spirits; and since that 
sensation is not attributed to brutes, the mention of them is inap- 
plicable to this argument. Neither is the ' ' dread of darkness ' ' rel- 
evant; there are good reasons for disliking to go where we cannot 
see, such as the fear of running against something and hurting our- 
selves. The admission, in the first sentence, would have been ap- 
propriate, to Lubbock's position, if it had been thus expressed: 
" If the mere belief in spiritual beings, powerful enough to greatly 
influence human life, and fear of them, are sufficient to constitute 
religion, then we must admit that religion exists in all savage 
tribes." 

While denying the existence of religion in many tribes, Lubbock 
says: "The savage is, however, almost universally, a believer in 
witchcraft" (P. T. 581), that is in a supernatural power. Tylor, 
S. C. ii. 417-424, has replied very forcibly to Lubbock. Both ar- 
guments deserve to be read by those who wish to examine this 
question thoroughly. 

Tylor (P. C. 15) says: "'Most of what we call superstition is 
included within survival, and in this way, lies open to the attack of 
its deadliest enemy, a reasonable explanation. " 

Tylor introduced the word "animism" to mean " the doctrine of 
spiritual beings," a belief which, as he says (P. C. 385) " charac- 
terizes tribes very low in the scale of humanity and thence ascends, 
deeply modified in its transmission, but from first to last, preserving 
an unbroken continuity into the midst of high modern culture. ' ' 
Many other authors have accepted animism as a valuable addition 
to the English language, but Lippert (S. C.) objects that while it 
expresses the philosophical conception of a future life, it fails to 
convey the idea of a worship of the disembodied spirits. He uses 
soul-worship {seelenkult) as preferable. Among savages the be- 
lief in spirits is always accompanied by worship. 
y Sec. 124. Imaginary World. — ^ Lip. K. G. i. 30. ^ Waitz ii. 190. 
^Ib. ii. 152, Allen ii. 121. ^Spencer P. S. 70, 71. ^ Waitz iii. 
195. ^ Maine 35, Spencer P. S. 79, 83. ^ Waitz vi. 343. ^Spencer 
E. C. 583, P. S. 55, 95. 9 lb. 70, 71. '"^ Du Chaillu E. A. 383, 384. 



364 APPENDIX. 

^^Spencer P. S. 99, 100. ^^ /^ joo. ^^ Low 260, 263. ^* Spencer P. 
S. 93. ^""Ib. 87, Lubbock O. C. 235. ^^ lb. ^^ Dodge H. G. 283. 
Clark 325. i8 Spencer P. S. 87. ^9 Lubbock O, C. 235. 20 Xylor P. 
C. ii. 20. "^^ lb. 112. 

2^ Scott's Madge Wildfire says, ** Whiles I think my puir bairn's 
dead — ye ken very weel it's buried — but that signifees naething. 
I have had it on my knee a hundred times, and a hundred till that, 
since it was buried, — and how could that be were it dead, ye ken 
— its merely impossible." In this case, the woman, as Tylor (E. 
H. Ch. vi.) says, "confounds imagination with reality." She does 
not distinguish between subjective and objective perceptions. She 
is like a class of persons who see visions in the fancy, and fancy 
they see them in the material world. 

I was acquainted with Alice and Phoebe Carey, sisters, poets, 
and ladies of most estimable character. Both have been dead for 
many years. Both had visions in which they saw, heard and felt 
spirits. One of them Alice if I recollect aright, told me that these 
spirits appeared to her senses as real as did any of her acquaint- 
ances. To her, they were, in no sense, illusions. Of their real 
existence, independently of her fancy, she had no doubt. In the 
opinion of the learned men of our time, generally, such figures are 
the products of an abnormal condition of the brain; they are the 
creations of an unregulated imagination. As Pascal says, the imag- 
ination is " one of the deceitful powers;" it has a great influence on 
human life. Lecky (H. M. i. 59) says that the whole history of 
the intellectual progress of the world is " one long struggle of the 
intellect of man to emancipate itself from the deceptions of Nature." 
This is perhaps too broadly stated; but man is certainly misled 
very seriously, and in many different directions, by fancies which 
seem to be inseparable from the ignorance that accompanies not 
only the low but also the high stages of culture, 

I believe in clairvoyance because I have had direct, and to me 
conclusive, proof of its truth. About 1872, Charles Foster, a noted 
spirit medium, made his first professional visit to San Francisco. 
Very soon after his arrival, I was one of four visitors to whom he 
gave a sitting. I had never seen him, nor he me. He had no op- 
portunity, so far as I knew, of learning anything about me, or 
my relatives. He could not have expected me, for I had no 
thought of seeing him until five minutes before I started. On 
reaching his hotel our party stopped in an ante-room where we 
each wrote the names of about a dozen deceased friends on bits of 



APPENDIX. 365 

paper five inches square. These were folded over with the 
names inside, until they were about three-quarters of an inch wide 
and five inches long. All these papers were given to me; and af- 
ter they were put into my hat, I could not, without opening them, 
have told which I had written, nor, if I had had mine separate, 
could I have told what name was on any one slip of paper. We 
went into Foster's room and were not introduced. We sat down 
with him at a round table about four feet in diameter. I turned 
out my papers on the table. He did not open one of them, nor 
did he hold one up in such a manner as to suggest that he tried to 
see what was in it. In the course of the sitting, he picked up one 
of the papers, which he held in his left hand while, with his right, 
he wrote the name John Shertzer; and then he gave both papers to 
me. I opened the closed paper and found that it was one on 
which I had written the name of a deceased uncle. I asked where 
he died. Foster requested me to write half a dozen places and put 
the right one among them. I made such a list, correct as I sup- 
posed. Foster scratched out all the names and said John Shertzer 
did not die at any place there named. I insisted that he did, 
whereupon Foster said he thought not, but if so, it was at Lebanon, 
Pennsylvania. It did not occur to me until afterwards that the 
death occurred at the village of Annville, in Lebanon County, Penn- 
sylvania, five miles from the town of Lebanon. I knew this fact at 
the time, but my recollections were confused, and for the moment 
I had forgotten. The death of John Shertzer occurred in 1854 and 
I am satisfied that Foster had never heard of him. 

Foster picked up a piece of paper and said, " Here's the name 
of a man that w.asshot," and looking at me he added, "This is 
yours." I asserted that I did not put the name of any man that 
had been shot in my list. Foster, without opening the paper, wrote 
out the name William Shertzer, and then gave me both papers. I 
explained, I had spoken too hastily. Wm. Shertzer disappeared 
mysteriously in southern Ohio about 1838, and his relatives never 
knew how or where he died. He may have been shot. 

General John McComb, now warden of the State Prison at San 
Quentin, was one of my companions in the visit to Foster. The lat- 
ter, in" the course of the sitting, said to M^Comb, "Thomas is 
here." McComb said, " I did not write the name of any Thomas." 
Foster replied that he thought he did. After some conversation 
with others, Foster again spoke to McComb and said, " The Gen- 
eral is here." McComb remarked that he did not put in the name 



366 APPENDIX. 

of any General. Foster said: "Certainly you did. Here's his 
name." He picked out a paper from the pile on the table, and 
without opening it, wrots " the name General Cazneau, a deceased 
militia general and insurance agent of San Francisco. I remarked 
that Cazneau' s first name was Thomas. Foster caught both Mc- 
Comb and myself in two errors about matters of which we knew 
everything and he nothing. Besides, these were not the only in- 
stances of the kind that occurred in the course of the sitting. He 
made no mistake, and he replied to many questions for each of 
the party. No chance, no preparation, could have enabled him to 
succeed. He was aided either by clairvoyance or by spirits. 

Foster claimed that he obtained' his information from spirits. I 
believe that he had an abnormal or clairvoyant perception, and 
that the disembodied souls which he saw or heard existed only in 
his imagination. I have several friends in whose learning and wis- 
dom I have great confidence, who had direct evidence similar to 
my own, and who, like me. believe in clairvoyance and not in 
spirit communication. 

I sent a proof of this note to General McComb, with requests for 
corrections, and for leave to use his name. In response he says : — 

"I have read the proof slips of an interview with Charles Foster, 
and my recollection of the facts agrees with your statement. As I 
am not a believer in spiritism, perhaps I should add that I was very 
much puzzled by the disclosures made by Mr. Foster, who was an 
entire stranger to me. You are privileged to use my name in veri- 
fication of the facts stated by you. ' ' 

Laycock (i. 176) says " that certain facts are familiar to the stu- 
dents of insanity, hysterical delirium, somnambulism, mesmeric 
clairvoyance, and so forth." This language implies that Laycock 
regards mesmeric clairvoyance as an abnormal, physical condition, 
not less genuine than insanity, hysterical delirium, and somnambu- 
lism; and to a certain degree, akin to them. 

It is the existence of clairvoyance that has been the main sup- 
port of the religion of spiritism in the United States, and that 
may have had a great influence in suggesting and maintaining the 
spiritual ideas in savage religions. 

Sec. 125, Devout Fear. — ^TylorP. C, ii. 209, ^ Spencer E. I, 
584. ^ lb. P. S. 117. *' No people," says Ballou (14), " could be 
more superstitious than the colored residents of Nassau. They 
shut up and double lock the doors and windows of their cabins, at 
night, to keep out the spirits. " *LippertK. G. i. 118. ^ lb. 112. 



APPENDIX. 367 

«i». 118. ^ 7/5. 113. 8/^.118. 9/^. lo Spencer P. S. 117. ^^ Waitz 
iii. 41. '^'^ lb. vi. 310. ^^ Spencer D. S. v. 39. ^* Featherman, 204, 
25,5, 288, 520, 549, 646. ^^Monteiro i. 247. ^^ Parry 551. ^'Lub- 
bock O. C. 220. ^^Ib, P. T. 578. ^^Ib. O. C. 221. 20/^ 221. 
21 Spencer E. J. 584. ''''lb. D. S. v, 39. ''''lb. P. S. 117. Tylor 
P. C. ii. 117. 2ivVaitz vi. 330. ''^TyXor P. C. ii. 178. ''^ lb. 
Spencer D. S. v. 34. ''^ lb. iii. 14. ''^ lb. v. 15. '^"^ lb. E, J. 584. 
^^ Tylor P. C. i. 193. '^'' lb. ^^ Spencer D. S. v. 40. ^*Woodi. 
466 

Sec. 126. Next Life. — ^Spencer P. S. loi. ''lb. 110-112. 
3 7/5. 106. ^Ib. D. S. iii. 6. ^ lb. P. S. no. « Lubbock O. C. 283. 
Tylor P. C. i. 429, 440. ^ Spencer P. S. 96. 

Sec. 127. Burial, etc. — ^ Clark 90. '' Cameron 94. 

Sec. 128. Mourning. — ^ Wood i. 232. ^ Spencer D. S. vi. 52. 
^Deut. xiv. I, * Bancroft i. 288. ^ Dodge W. I. 172. ^Waitzvi. 
401. 

Writing of the tropical Polynesians Gerland (Waitz vi. 339) says: 
** Faith in spiritual powers was evolved in these islands in the sim- 
plest accordance with the promptings of nature, and the resulting 
heathenism was more complete than any to be found elsewhere. 
No other race has had in its history so few external shocks, to 
stimulate or check its spontaneous growth. Therefore it is that, 
mythologically considered, the Polynesians not only show us the 
original type of humanity, but also the course of its growth. They 
show us what religious ideas, under circumstances not obstructive 
to his cultural development, man can and must adopt in the higher 
phases of savagism. ' ' 

Sec. 129. Soul l^orship.—^VJaXtz vi. 330. ^ Lippert K. G. ii. 
293. ^Spencer P. S. 373. *75. 143. ^jQ^gg 428. ^ Lubbock O. 
C. 382. Cumming H. F. 251. ''Waitz vi. 370. ^Spencer P. S. 
388. 9 Krapf. 52. 

Sec. 130. Totemism. — ^ Waitz vi. 336, 373. ^ Lubbock O. C. 266- 
270. ^Spencer P. S. 167. ^Ib. 166. ^ lb. ^Ib.i^-j. -^ lb. 172. 
«75. 97/5.165. 10 7/5. 1S0-182. 1175.182. ^''Ib. 7/5.179. ^'Ib. 

As a result of the idea that I'nany divinities take up their res- 
idence in beasts, the Solomon Islanders think that a shark should 
have the man whom he has tried to catch. If the man escapes 
nto a canoe, they throw him overboard. Guppy 71. 

List of animals sacred in various African tribes. Waitz ii. 178, 

179, 352. 
Sec. 131. Fetishism. — 'Lubbock O. C. 328. ■■'Waitz vi. 317. 



368 APPENDIX. 

3 Bancroft i. 61. * In shamanism '* every object and force of nature 
is supposed to have the *zi,' or spirit, who could be controlled by- 
magical exorcisms of the'Shaman. or sorcerer priest. " Sayce A. 
E. E. 146. ^Tylor P. C. ii. 153. 

For Redman's fetish, or medicine, see Clark, 248. Catlin i. 36. 

Much has been written to prove that shamanism is one of the 
main phases of religion in rude culture, and that it is limited to 
Asia. The main idea that the priest can control disembodied 
spirits and compel them to help or hurt the living is found among 
the fetish worshipers, and the line between fetishism and shaman- 
ism is vague and unimportant. Lippert (G. P. i. 252) discusses 
shamanism fully, and I think is the best authority in regard to it. 

Sec. 132. Ancestor Worship. — ^Spencer P. S. 147. "^ lb, 152. 
^Deut. xxvi. 14. * Spencer P. S. 152. ^ lb. 142. '^ lb. ^ Holub. 
302. 

Sec. 133. Offerings. — ^Spencer P. S. 139, 368-377. '^ lb. Tylor 
P. C. ii. 2i^-2i\- ^ Spencer D. S. iv. 15. ^ Jb. P. S. 139. ^Turner 
20. ^Spencer P. S. 373. "^ lb. 108. 

In Unyoro and Uganda *'if the dead appear to their relations in 
a dream, an offering of flour and the blood of a sheep is brought 
to the clay vessels and the spirits are besought to discontinue their 
visits." Emin Pasha, 230. 

Sec. 135. Human Sacrifices. — ^ Allen 328. ^Stanley C. ii. 181. 
^ Baker i. 335. * Featherman i. 444. ^ Spencer P. S. 106. ^/^ 
^ Wood i. 222. 8 Spencer P. S. 104. ^ Baker i. 335. ^® Cameron ii. 
no. ^^Wood ii. 753. ^^ Spencer D. S. v. 39. ^^Waitz ii. 197. 
^* Featherman i. 432. ^^ Schoolcraft iv. 50. ^^ Lubbock O. C. 366. 
^^ Featherman i. 20. ^ lb. 477. ^^ lb. 695. ^^ Spencer D. S iii. 38. 
'-^^Seeman 236. '^■^Waitz iii. 207. ^3 pg^therman i. 236. Tylor P. 
C. ii. 250. Wilson 219. '^^Leonowens 147. ^^ Lippert K. G. ii. 
292. "^^ lb. 270. 

The left eye of the victim, in the human sacrifice, was offered to 
the King of Hawaii. Kalakaua 46. 

Sec. 136. Gods. — ^Lippert G. P. i. 245 =^ Spencer E. I. 628-646. 

Sec. 137. /^^/a/'rj/.—^ Spencer P. S. 154. '^3. '^ lb. 155. ^Ib. 
156. ^Ib. ^Ib. -lib. ^Ib. 158. ^Ib. ^^Ib. ^^ lb. Lander i. 
125. ^'^ Spencer P. S. 156. ^^Waitz vi. 370. ^*/(^. 342, 369. ^^ Tylor 
P. C. ii. 157, 161. ^sspencer D. S. vi. 47. ^^ Lubbock O. C. Ch. 
iii. 

Sec. 138. Divi7ie hitercourse. — ^ Waitz vi. 679. '^ lb. 340. ^ Baker 
N. T. 129. 



APPENDIX. 369 

Sec. 139. Worship. — ^ Moerenhout ii. 83. ^ Bourke S. D. 255. 
3 Spencer D. S. vi. 52. *Waitz iii. 180. ^ Jones 428. ^Woodi. 
686. T Lubbock O. C. 315. ^Waitz iii. 180. ^ lb. 181, 209. 
^•'Waitz iii. 300. ^^ Jones 23. ^'-^ Spencer D. S. v. 34. ^^ Gumming 
H. H. ii. 164. ^^ Spencer P. S. 370. ^^Waitz vi.385. 

Sec. 140. Priests. — ^Lubbock (O. C. 370) says that "without 
temples and sacrifices there cannot be priests," and that among 
the lower savages " there are no priests, properly so called. " This 
is in harmony with his opinion previously cited that many of the 
lower savages have no religion, and that faith in, and fear of, 
spiritual beings are not sufficient to make up a religious belief. 
^^Waitzii. 196. ^Spencer P. S. 474. ^Little 157. ^ Spencer E. I. 
602, 603. ^Ib. 606. '^Waitz iii. 385. ^Kohl 132. ^Waitzii. 199. 
^<» Spencer D. S. iii. 14. ^^ lb. E. I. 606. ^^ Waitz iii. 373. ^^ /^. ii. 
402 ^^ lb. vi. 387. Spencer P. S. 197, 402. 

Sec. 141. Sensitives, etc. — ^Tylor P. C. i. 120. Wood ii. 290. 
^Tylor P. C. i. 120. ^ \\rQQ(^ i jgg^ * Waitz vi. 372. ^ Spencer D. 
S. V. 35. 673. p. s. 131. TTylorP. C. ii. 377, 378. Clark 155. J. 
G. Muller, 182. Robinson 271. ^ Waitz iii. 544. Seeman 330. 
Tschudi 189. ^Spencer P. S. 125. Catlin i. 222. ^•'Spencer P. S. 
132. ^^ Kohl 106. ^^ Waitz vi. 393. 

Spirit rappers among Chippeways. Kohl. 278. Among Africans. 
Wilson 216. 

Sec. 142. Sorcerers. — ^ Waitz vi. 679. Kalakaua 59. ^ Waitz vi. 
396. Emin Pasha 206. Kalakaua 42. Tylor E. H. 129. ^Spencer. 
D. T. iv. 33. Waitz iii. 118. *Wood i. 196. ^ Peschel 264. 
^Spencer D. S. iv. 34. 

Sorcerers change themselves into vampires or man-eating beasts. 
Emin Pasha 93, 261. Tylor P. C. ii. 175. 

Sec. 143. Sacerdotal Functions. — ^ Waitz vi. 383. ^ Wood ii. 133. 
3 Spencer E. I. 630. *Jarves4o. ^ Dodge H. G. 275. ^Wilson 76. 
Barton G. L. i. loi. 

Sec. 144. Areoi. — ^ Waitz vi. 363. ^ lb. 366. 

Sec. 145. Revenue, etc. — ^ Spencer P. S. 374. ^ i Sam. xxi. 6. 
3 Ex. XX. 25, 26. *Jud. vi. 19, 21. ^2 Sam. vii. 4-6. ^ Most of this 
paragraph is a condensation from Spencer E. I. 626. 

Sec. 146. Taboo. — ^ Lippert K. G. i. 119. Wood i. 406. Guppy 
32. Park 174. ■^ Low 260. ^ Waitz vi. 361. * Powell 113. ^Thom- 
son N. Z. i. loi. ^Robinson 298. ^Spencer D. S. v. 19, 36. 
^ Waitz vi. 362. ^ lb. ^'^ lb. 323 ^\|arves 57. Wood ii. 189. 
Scherzer iii. 114. Thomson N. Z. 105. 
24 



3/0 APPENDIX. 

Sec. 147. Omens, etc. — ^Bagehot 129. Emin Pasha 96. Dodge 
H. G. 275. lb. W. I. 135. 2 Chalmers and Gill 308. ^ Waitz vi. 
805. * Waitz vi. 393. ^ Wood ii. 565. ^ Waitz ii. 417. ^ Wood i. 465. 

Sec. 148. Temples, (?/^.—^ Maclean M. B. 100. "^ lb. 221. ^ lb. 
54. * lb. 46. 5 lb, 56. 6 jb, 57. T /^ 58. 8 Spencer P. S. 137. » /<^. 
Emin Pasha 93. ^° Spencer P. S. 137. "7(5. ^^7^.373. ^'^73.137, 
1*73. 1^75. 16/(5. i^7(^. 18 Waitz vi. 373. ^^ lb. vl 377. 20/3^ 
21^3. ^'Ib.v. 75. "-^Ib. 226. 24 Spencer P. S. 138. ^s /^. 26/^. 
2^ 7(5. 28 73. 29 Fergusson 27. 

Sec. 149. Religious Development— ^^id^yi. MuUer C. G. W. i. 
Preface. 

In many passages, Max Muller (S. R. 51, 104, 106, 108, O. R. 64, 
N. R. 219) accepts the idea that a supernatural revelation of the 
main truths of religion was given to savages. But he has not made 
a study of savage culture, and has never been a recognized au- 
thority in reference to it. In writing of it, he has made some gross 
mistakes. He has asserted (N. R, 219) that all religions teach 
morality. Of fetishism he has said that it represents "the very 
lowest stage which religion can reach." Again he has written of 
the fetish as if it were regarded as something supernatural and en- 
tirely different from the idol which is merely the home of a spirit or 
divinity. As the reader has seen in the text, the fetish worshiper 
and the idol worshiper are alike in worshiping a spirit supposed 
to make its home in the material object. 

It is worthy of remark that Max Muller asserts that while the 
supernatural has been at work in a foreign domain of which he 
knows little, in his own specialty, philology, all the changes have 
occurred under the influence of natural law. He quotes (N. R. 
237) with compassion Plato's opinion "that language could not 
possibly have been invented by man." After asserting that lan- 
guage is a natural product of the human mind, and that true re- 
ligion was revealed to savages and then allowed to degenerate, he 
tells us {^Ib. 313) that "a truly scientific study of religion is impossi- 
bl e unless we know the language which forms the soil from which 
religion and mythology spring." Is savage religion the super- 
natural fruit ot the natural tree, language ? 

The theory of a divine revelation of fundamental religious truth 
to savages has been accepted by many other authors, including 
Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, F. Schlegel, De Maistre, Gladstone, and 
Whateley, but no one has undertaken to give evidences and argu- 



APPENDIX. 371 

ments to sustain his opinion. The reader can consult Tylor P. C. 
i. 36; Flint 414, 428, 463. 

Sec. 152. Grades of Culture. — ^Lubbock P. T. 435, 436, 550. 
■''Pickering 304. ^Fremont 212. *Waitz i. 390. 

Lubbock (P. T. 553) gives a table of the possession of bows, 
slings, throw-sticks, boomerangs, bolas, fishhooks, and nets by 
various tribes, but I see little significance in it and therefore do not 
copy it here. Lippert's supposition (K. G. i. 306) that the lack of 
the bow among the Australians, Tasmanians, and most Polyne- 
sians is proof that their ancestors must have migrated from their 
continental home, before that weapon was invented, does not 
harmonize well with the fact that the Andamanese have bows with- 
out huts, tillage or polished stone, and that the Tahitians, Hawaiians 
and Kaffirs with advanced savage culture, and familiar with the 
bow, made no use of it save as a plaything, preferring the spear in 
war and the chase. 

Sec. 153. Some Characteristics. — ^Waitzi, 42. ^Lubbock P. T. 
281. ^ lb. 359. *The potato supports twice as many people to the 
acre as does wheat. Buckle H. C. i. notes 46 and 167. ^ A date 
tree yields 360 lbs. of fruit annually, equivalent to 7,200 lbs. for an 
acre. Bartlett 46. One square league sustains 70,000 date palm 
trees. Humboldt Ch. viii. Since there are 4,438 acres in a square 
league, this would allow only 15 trees to an acre, leaving a distance 
of more than 50 feet from tree to tree, whereas 35 or 40 is sufficient 
for old trees in full bearing. At 35 feet apart there would be 35 
trees on an acre, and at 360 lbs. to 9 tree, a crop of 12,600 lbs. A 
sago palm tree will yield 300 lbs. 01 sago; but this is not an annual 
crop. Wallace M. A. 382, Waitz v. 128. One cocoa palm tree 
supports several families. Scherzer i. 365. It yields a ton of nuts 
annually. Tennent ii. 457. ^Authority lost. '' Brigham (353) says 
that 1,607 square feet of rich soil in Guatemala yield 4,000 lbs. of 
plantain. This is equivalent to 84,000 lbs. for an acre. Tylor (M. 
303) says that "according to the lowest estimate" one acre of 
bananas will support as many people as twenty acres of wheat. 
The yield of plantain to the acre in Africa is estimated by Du Chaillu 
(A. L. 119) at 27,000 lbs. Buckle (H. C. i. notes 46 and 167) citing 
Humboldt, says that in the yield of nutriment from an acre, the 
banana is to wheat as 133 to one. Tropical fruits contain 12 per 
cent, of carbon; blubber contains 65 to 80 per cent. Buckle H. C. 
i. note 46. 8 Waitz vi. 64. 



372 APPENDIX. 

For sources from which we have derived our cultivated plants 
see De Candolle and Hehn. 

Sec. 156. Benefits of War. — ^ Spencer P. i. 582. The same author 
{lb. 438) says: "Neither the consolidation and reconsolidation of 
small groups into large ones, nor the organization of such com- 
pound and doubly compound groups, nor the concomitant develop- 
ment of those aids to a higher life which civilization has brought, 
would have been possible without intertribal and international con- 
flicts. Social co-operation is initiated by joint defense and offense, 
and from the co-operation thus initiated, all kinds of co-operati?)n 
have arisen. Inconceivable as have been the horrors caused by 
this universal antagonism, which, beginning with the chronic hos- 
tilities of small hordes, tens of thousands of years ago, has ended 
in the occasional vast battles of immense nations, we must never- 
theless admit that, without it, the world would still have been in- 
habited only by men of feeble types, sheltering in caves and living 
on wild food." 

Victor Cousin praises war as the ' ' terrible but necessary instru- 
ment of civilization." He says (190) "the hypothesis of a condition 
of perpetual peace among men would be the hypothesis of absolute 
stagnation. * * * War is nothing save a bloody exchange of 
ideas; a battle is nothing but a struggle between truth and error; 
* ^ * a victory is nothing but the triumph of the truth of to-day 
over the truth of yesterday. * * * The frequent assertions 
that war is a game of chance and the fortune of battle very uncer- 
tain, is true if viewed in a narrow spirit but most false when con- 
sidered upon general principles. Humanity never lost a battle. 
Every great victory has been achieved in the interest of civili- 
zation. * * -^s- The conqueror is the better, and more moral 
than the conquered ; and for that reason is the victor. If this were not 
true then morality and civilization would be in conflict; but that is 
not possible, since both are merely different phases of the same 
idea." 

This praise of war is quoted here for the the suggestiveness, not 
for the correctness, of its ideas. In many cases war does not de- 
serve to be dignified 'Cvith the title of "an exchange of ideas, ' * and 
a great battle does not turn in favor of civilization any more than a 
meeting between a highwayman and a mechanic carrying the 
savings of years of labor. The assertions that the cause of progress 
* ' never lost a battle, ' ' or that ' 'every great victory has been achieved 
in the interest of civilization, ' ' are extremely questionable considered 



APPENDIX. 373 

separately and are entirely unnecessary in support of the main 
proposition that war has rendered great service to culture. 

Sec. 157. Benefits of Slavery, etc. — ^"Abject submission of the 
weak to the strong, however unscrupulously enforced, has in times 
and places been necessary." Spencer P. I. 436. "Subjection to 
despots has been largely instrumental in advancing civilization." 
lb. 481. 

"Conservation of ethnological families, material and moral c.e- 
velopment, primitive discipline, apprenticeship of liberty, indis- 
pensable novitiate and inevitable passage from barbarism to civil- 
ized life, — these are the titles of slavery to the gratitude of man- 
kind." — Wallon Introduction. 

Sec. 158. Benefits of Religion. — ^Spencer E. 1.622,651. Lip- 
pert (K. G. i. 28.) says: " Religion gave to the laws of morality those 
penal sanctions without which men could not have been educated 
up to the lower and middle rules of ethics; and these are indis- 
pensable to the development of the higher principles and to the 
creation of the moral instinct." Carpenter (501) remarks: "The re- 
ligion once true may become a lie; the polity once fraught with 
blessing may become a curse." 

Among the ancient authors who wrote of religion as a valuable 
police institution, are Polybius, Strabo, Livy, Dionysius and Pau- 
sanius. See citations from them in Milman, H. L. C, ch. i. This 
opinion has been shared by chiefs, kings and statesmen in every age 
of the world. For remarks about some of the evil influences of 
savage religions see Waitz i. 459, 469 and Burckhardt N. 405. 

LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 

Abbott, C. C, Primitive Industry, Salem, 1861. 

Allen, J. W. and T. R. H. Thomson, Expedition to the Niger, 2 

vols., London, 1848. 
Andr^e, R., Die Anthropophagie, Leipzig, 1887. 
Anthropological Institute of London, Journal of. 
Anthropological Society of London, Memoirs of. 
Auteroche, Abbe, A Journey into Siberia, translated, London, 

1770. 
Bachofen, Das Mutterrecht, Stuttgart, 1861. 
Baegert, J., [Lower] California, translated. In Smithsonian Annual 

Reports for 1863 and 1864. 
Bagehot, W., Physics and Politics, London, 1872. 
Baker, S. W., Nile Tributaries, Philadelphia, 1867. 



374 APPENDIX. 

Baker, S. W., Albert Nyanza, London, 1866. 

" " Ismailia, New York, 1875. 

" " Eight Years 'in Ceylon, Philadelphia, 1869. 

Ballon, M. M., Due South or Cuba, New York, 1885. 
Bancroft, H. H., Native Races of the Pacific States, 5 vols., New 

York, 1876. 
Barnes, W. H., The Story of Laulii, edited by, San Francisco, 1889. 
Bartlett, S. C, From Egypt to Palestine, N. Y., 1869. 
Bastian, A., Das Bestaendige in den Menschenrassen, Berlin, 1868. 
Beechey, F. W., A Voyage to the Pacific, 2 vols., London, 1831. 
Berthet, E., Prehistoric World, Philadelphia, 1879. 
Bible, The Holy, King James' Version. 

Blunt, A., Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, New York, 1879. 
Bock, C, The Head Hunters, London, 1882. 
Bonwick, J., Daily Life of the Tasmanians, London, 1870. 

*' " Last of the Tasmanians, London, 1870, 

Bowring, J., A Visit to the Philippine Islands, London, 1859. 
Bougainville, J. de. Voyage round the World, translated, London, 

1772. 

Bourke, J. G., The Snake Dance of the Moquis, New York, 1884. 

*' " Human Ordure and Human Urine in Religious 

Rites, Washington, 1888. 

Brett, W. H., Guiana, London, 1868. 

Brigham, W. T., Guatemala, New York, 1887. 

Brooke, J., Borneo, from the journals of, 2 vols., London, 1848. 

Buckle, H. T., Introduction to the History of Civilization, 4 vols., 

New York, 1864. 

" " Miscellaneous Posthumous Work, 3 vols., London, 

1872. 

Burckhardt, J. L., Travels in Nubia, London, 181 5. 

" " Bedouins and Wahabys, London, 1830. 

** " Arabic Proverbs, London, 1830. 

" " Syria and the Holy Land, London, 1822. 

Burton, R. T., The Lake Regions of Central Africa, 2 vols., Lon- 
don, i860. 
" ** Two Trips to Gorilla Land, 2 vols., London, 1876. 

" " Sind Revisited, 2 vols., London, 1877. 

Cameron, V. L., Across Africa, New York, 1877, 
Candolle, A. de, Origin of Cultivated Plants, New York, 1885. 
Carpenter, W. B., Nature and Man, New York, 1889. 
Carr, L. , The Mounds of the Mississippi Valley, In Geological Sur? 
vey of Kentucky, Cincinnati, 1883. 



APPENDIX. 375 

Carr, L. and N. S. Shaler, Prehistoric Remains of Kentucky, In 
Geological Survey of Kentucky, Cincinnati, 1883. 

Cartailhac, E., Les Ages Prehistoriques de I'Espagne et du Portu- 
gal, Paris, 1886, 

Caspar!, O., Die Urgeschichte der Menschheit, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1877. 

Catlin, G., The North American Indians, 2 vols., London, 1857. 

Chalmers, J. and W. W. Gill, Work and Adventure in New Guinea, 
London, 1885. 

Chapman, J., Travels in South Africa, 2 vols., London, 1868. 

Clarke, W. P., The Indian Sign Language, Philadelphia, 1885. 

Commissioner of U. S. Indian Affairs Report for 1872. 

Cook, F. C, The Origins of Religion and Language, London, 1884. 

Cook, J., Voyages, 2 vols., London, 1777. 

Cooper, H. S., Coral Lands, 2 vols., London, 1880. 

Cope, E. D., Origin of the Fittest, New York, 1886. 

Cousin, v., Introduction a I'Histoire de la Philosophic, Pain, 1867. 

Crantz, D., The History of Greenland, translated, 2 vols,, London, 
1777. 

Cremony, J. C, Life among the Apaches, San Francisco, 1868. 

Croll, J., Climate and Time, New York, 1875. 

Gumming, C. F. G., From the Hebj-ides to the Himalayas, 2 vols. 
London, 1876. 
" " At Home in Fiji, New York, 1882. 

** "A Lady's Cruise, 2 vols., London, 1882. 

D'Albertis, L. M., New Guinea, 2 vols., Boston, 1881. 

Dall, W. H., Alaska, Boston, 1870. 

" " On Masks, Labrets, etc., Washington, 1885. 

" " Tribes of the Extreme Northwest, Washington, 1877. 

Darwin, C, Descent of Man, 2 vols.. New York, 1871. 
" Journal of Researches, New York, 1871. 

Dawkins, W. B., Early Man in Britain, London, 1880. 
" " Cave Hunting, London, 1874. 

Dawson, J. W., Fossil Men, London, 1880. 

Dodge, R. I., The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, London, 
1877. 
" Our Wild Indians, Hartford, 1886. 

Domenech, E., Seven Years' Residence in the Deserts of North 
America, 2 vols., London, i860 . 

Du Chaillu, P. B., Equatorial Africa, New York, 1861. 
" Ashango Land, New York, 1867. 

Ellis, W., Polynesian Researches, 4 vols., London, 1859. 



37^ APPENDIX. 

Ellis, A. B., West African Islands, London, 1885. 

Emin Pasha in Central Africa, translated. New York, 1889. 

Evans, J., The Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain, New 

York, 1872. 
Featherman, A., Social History of the Races of Mankind, vol. i, 

Nigritians, London, I881. 
Fison, L. and A. W. Howett, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, Melbourne, 

1880. 
Fletcher, J. C. and D. P. Kidder, Brazil, Boston, 1868. 
Fletcher, R., On Prehistoric Trephining, In Contributions to N. 

A. Ethnology, Vol. V, Washington. 
Flint, R., The Philosophy of History, Edinburgh, 1874. 
Forbes. H. O., A Naturalist's Wanderings in the Eastern Archipel- 

agQ, New York, 1885. 
Fornander, A.^ The Polvnesian Race, 3 vols., London, 1878. 
Forster, A., South Australia^ London, 1886. 
Forster, G., A Voyage round the World, 2 vols., London, 1777. 
Foster, J. W., Prehistoric Races of the United States, Chicago, 

1873- 
Franchere, G., Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America, New 

York, 1814 
Fremont, J. C, Report of Exploring Expeditions, Washington, 

1845. 

Galton, F., Inquiries into Human Faculty, New York, 1883. 

Geikie, J-, Prehistoric Europe, London, 1881. 
" " The Great Ice Age, New York, 1875. 

Gibbon, L. , Exploration- of the Valley of the Amazon, Washing- 
ton, 1854. 

Gill, W. W., Life in the Southern Seas, London, 1876. 
" " Savage Life in Polynesia, Wellington, 1880. 

Graham, D., Massage, New York, 1884. 

Gray, H., China, London, 1878. 

Green, W. S., High Alps of New Zealand. 

Guinnard, A., Three Years' Slavery among the Patagonians, trans- 
lated, London, 1871. 

Guppy, H. B., The Solomon Islands, London, 1887. 

Haeckel, E., A Visit to Ceylon, translated, London, 1883. 

Hale, H., The Iroquois Book of Rites, Philadelphia, 1883. 

Hall, C. F., Arctic Researches, New York, 1865. 

Harper's Magazine, New York, 

Harris, W. C, Adventures in Africa, Philadelphia, no date. 



APPENDIX. 377 

Hartmann, R., Die Voelker Afrikas, Leipzig, 1879. 

Hearn, \V. E. , The Arj-an Household, London, 1879. 

Hehn, V., Kulturpflanzen and Hausthiere, Berlin, 1887. 

Helhvald, F. von. Kulturgeschichte, 2 vols., Augsburg, 1883. 

Hemdon, W. H., The Valley of the Amazon, Washington, 1853. 

Hesse-Warteg E. von, Tunis, New York, no date. 

Hittell, T. H., The Histor\'of California, 2 vols., San Francisco, 

1885. 
Holule, E., South Africa, 2 vols., Boston, 1881. 
Hooker, J. and J. Ball, A Tour in Morocco, London, 1878. 
Homaday, W. T., Two Years in the Jungle, New York, 1S85. 
Humboldt, A., Personal Narrative of Travels, translated, 3 vols., 

London, 1852. 
Hunter, \V. W., The Indian Empire, London, 1882. 
Hutchinson, T. J., The Parana, London, 1868. 
Iconographic Encj'clopedia, The, Philadelphia, 1886. 
Ir\-ing, W., Bonne\-ille's Adventures, New York, 1859. 
Jackson, H. H., A Centur}' of Dishonor, New York, 1S81. 

" " Ramona, Boston, 18S4. 

Jagor, P., Travels in the Philippines, London, 1875. 
James, F. L., The Wild Tribes of the Soudan, New York, 1883. 
Jarves, J. J., A Historj- of the Hawaiian Islands, Boston, 1843. 
Joly, N., Man before Metals, New York, 1883. 
Jones, C. C, Jr., Antiquities of the Southern Indians, New York, 

1873. 
Johnston, A. F., Camping among the Cannibals, London, 1883. 
Johnston, H. H,, The River Congo, London, 1884. 
Journal of the Anthropological Institute, London. 
Kalakaua, D., The Legends and Mjths of Hawaii, New York, 1888. 
Kane, P., The Wanderings of an Artist, London, 1859. 
Keate, G., The Pelew Islands, London, 1789. 
Keller, F., The Amazon and Madeira Rivers, Philadelphia, 1875. 
** " The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, translated, Lon- 
don, 1846. 
Kennan, G., Tent Life in Siberia, New York, 1871. 
Klemm, G.. Allgemeine Cultur-Geschichte, 10 vols., Leipzig, 1843- 

52. 
Klemm, G., Allgemeine Culturwissenschaft, Leipzig, 1855. 
Kohl, J. G., Wanderings round Lake Superior, London, i86o. 
Kohler, J.. Zur Lehre der Blutrache, Wurzburg, 1885. 
Koran, The. 



3/8 APPENDIX. 

Krapf, J. L,, Eastern Africa, London, i860. 

Kuhn, A., Die Herabkunft des Feuers, Gutersloh, 1886. 

Latitau, J. F., Moeurs des Sauvages, 2 vols., Paris, 1724. 

Lander, R. and J., The Niger, 2 vols., New York, 1846. 

Lane, E. W., Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 2 

vols., London, 1846. 
La P^rouse, J. F. G. de. Voyage of, translated, 3 vols., London, 

1799. 
Lapham, L A., The Antiquities of Wisconsin, Washington, 1855. 
Latham, R. G., Natural History of the Varieties of Man, London, 
1850. 
" ' Descriptive Ethnology, 2 vols., London, 1859. 

Laycock, T., Mind and Brain, New York, 1869. 
Lecky, W. E. H., A History of European Morals, 2 vols., London, 

1869. 
Leonowens, A. H., Life and Travels in India, Philadelphia, 1884. 
Letourneau, C, Sociology, translated, London, 1881. 
Lippert, J., Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit in ihrem organischen 
Aufbau, 2 vols., Stuttgart, 1886. 
" " Seelencult, Bedin, 1881. 
" " Die Geschichte der Familie, Stuttgart, 1884. 
*' " Allgemeine 'Geschichte des Priesterthums, 2 vols., Ber- 
lin, 1883. 
Lisiansky, A., A Voyage round the World, London, 1884. 
Little, H. W., Madagascar, London, 1884. 
Littr6, M. P. E., Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise, 4 vols., Paris, 

1863-72. 
Livingstone, D., Expedition to the Zambesi, New York, 1866. 
" The Last Journals of, New York, 1875. 
" *' Travels in South Africa, New York, 1858. 

Long, S. H., An Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 2 vols., Phil- 
adelphia, 1823. 
Low, H., Sarawak, London, 1848. 
Lubbock, J., Origin of Civilization, New York, 1882. 

" " Prehistoric Times, New York, 1872. 
Lyell, C, Antiquity of Man, Philadelphia, 1863. 

" " A Second Visit to the United States, 2 vols. New York, 

1855. 
Mackenzie, A., Voyages through North America, Philadelphia, 

1802. 
Maclean, J. P., The Mound Builders, Cincinnati, 1879. 



i 



APPENDIX. 379 

Maclean, J. P., A Manual of the Antiquity of Man, Cincinnati, 1880. 

Maine, H., Early Law and Custom, New York, 1883. 

Malthus, T., An Essay on the Principles of Population, 2 vols., 

London, 1866. 
Marsh, G. P., The Earth as Modified by Human Action, New 

York, 1874. 
Marshall, W. E., A Phrenologist Among the Todas, London, 1873. 
Martineau, H., Eastern Life, Boston, 1876. 
McLennan, J. P., Studies in Ancient History, London, 1876. 
McLennan, J. F. and D., The Patriarchal Theory, London, 1885. 
Melville, H., Types, New York, 1876. 
" Omoo, New York, 1852. 
Milman, H. H., A History of Christianity, 3 vols. New York, 1871. 
Moerenhout, J. A., Voyages aux Isles du Grand Ocean, 3 vols., 

Paris, 1837. f 

Mohr, E., To the Victoria Falls, translated, London, 1876. 
Monteiro, J. J., Angola and the River Congo, 2 vols., London, 

1875. 
Morgan, L. H., Ancient Society; New York, 1877. 

" " Systems of Consanguinity, Washington, 187 1. 

" * * Hours and House Life of the American Aborigines, 

Washington, 1881. 
Mortillet, G. de. La Prehistorique Antiquite de I'homme , Paris, 

1883. 
Mouatt, F. J., The Andaman Islanders, London, 1863. 
Muller, F., Ethnographie, Wien, 1868. 
MuUer, J. G., Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, Basel, 

1867. 
Muller, Max, Lectures on the Science of Language, New York, 
1866. 
" ** Lectures on the Science of Language, Second Series, 

New York, 1865. 
" '* Chips from a German Workship, 5 vols, New York, 

1876, 1881. 
" ** Science of Thought, London, 1887. 
The two series of lectures on the Science of Language are cited 
as two volumes of the same work. 
Nadaillac, M. de, Prehistoric America, New York, 1884. 
New, C, Eastern Africa, London, 1873. 

Nordenskiold, A. E., Voyage of the Vega, translated. New York, 
1882. 



380 APPENDIX. 

O'Donovan, E., The Meri Oasis, 2 vols, New York, 1883. 
Orton, J., The Andes and.the Amazon, New York, 1870. 
Overland Monthly, San Francisco. 

Palgrave, W. G., Central and Eastern Arabia, 2 vols., London, 
1865. 
** *' Dutch Guiana, London, 1876. 

Park, M., Travels, New York, 1840. 
Parkman, F., Jesuits in North America, Boston, 1867. 
Parkyns, M,, Abyssinia, 2 vols., New York, 1854. 
Parry, W. E., Journal of a Second Voyage, London, 1826. 
Pickering, C, The Races of Man, London, 1864. 
Ploss, H., Das Kind, 2 vols., Berlin, 1882. 

" " Das Maennerkindbett. No date or place. 
Popular Science Monthly, New York. 

Powell, W., Wanderings in a Wild Country, London, 1883. 
Powers, S., Tribes of California, Washington, 1877. 
Prichard, J, C, Natural History of Man, 2 vols., London, 1855. 
Quatrefages A. de. Human Species, London, 1879. 
Reade, W., Savage Africa, New York, 1864. 
Revue d'Anthropologie, Paris. 

Richardson, J., Central Africa, 2 vols., London, 1853. 
Robinson, A., Life in California, New York, 1846. This book was 

published anonymously. 
Romanes, G. J., Mental Evolution in Man, New York, 1882. 
Romilly, H. H., The Western Pacific and New Guinea, London, 

1886. 
Royer, C, Origine de I'homme, Paris, 1870. 
Sayce, A. H. , Ancient Empires of the East. 

" " Principles of Comparative Philosophy, London, 1874. 

" " Introduction to the Science of Language, 2 vols., 

London, 1880. 
Scherzer, K., Voyage of the Novara, 3 vols., translated, London, 

1861. 
Schoolcraft, H. R., Indian Tribes of the United States, Philadel- 
phia, 1854, i860. 
Schweinfurth, G., The Heart of Africa, 2 vols.. New York, 1874. 
Seeman, B., Viti [Fiji], London, 1862. 
Skertchly, J. A., Dahomey, London, 1874. 
Smith, W. R., Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, Cambridge, 

1885. 
Smithsonian Institute, Annual Report of, for 1884, 1885. 



APPENDIX. 381 

Smithsonian Institute, Annual Report of, for 1872. 
Spencer, H., The Principles of Sociology, New York, 1877. 
" ** Ceremonial Institutions, New York, 1880. 
** " Political Institutions, New York, 1885. 
" *' Ecclesiastical Institutions. 
" " Descriptive Sociology. 
Squier E. G., States of Central America, New York, 1858. 

** ** Aboriginal Monuments of New York, Washington, 

1851 
Squier, E. G. and E. H. Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, Washington, 1848. 
Stanley, H. M., Through the Dark Continent, 2 vols., New York, 
1878. 
" " How I found Livingstone, New York, 1872. 

•* " The Congo, 2 vols., New York, 1884. 

Starcke, C. N., The Primitive Family, New York, 1889. 
Steller, G. W., The History of Kamtschatka, translated, Glouces- 
ter, 1774. The name of Steller does not appear on the title page. 
Stevens, E. T., Flint Chips, London, 1870. 
Tennent, J. E., Ceylon, 2 vols., London, i860. 
Thompson, A. S., New Zealand, London, 1859. 
Thomson, J., Straits of Malacca, New York, 1875. 

** " Central African Lakes, 2 vols., Boston, 1881. 
" " Through Masai Land, Boston, 1885. 
Trollope, A., Australia and New Zealand, 2 vols., London, 1873. 
Thorburn, S. G., Bannu, London, 1876. 
Tschudi, J. J. von. Travels in Peru, New York, 1854. 
Turner, G., Samoa, London, 1884. 
Trumbull, H. C, The Blood Covenant, New York, 1885. 
Tylor, E. B., Researches into the Early History of Mankind, Lon- 
don, 1870. 
** ** Primitive Culture, 2 vols., London, 1871. 

" " Anthropology, London, 1884. 

" " Anahuac (Mexico), London, 1861 

Waitz, T., Anthropologie der Natur Voelker, 6 vols., Leipzig, 
1859-72. Theils or parts 5 and 6 were written by G. Gerland af- 
ter the death of Waitz. Several of the theils are divided into 
hefts, of which division no notice is taken in the citations. 
Wallace, A. R., The Malay Archipelago, New York, 1869. 
"■ Island Life, New York, 1881. 
" *' Australia, London, 1879. 



382 APPENDIX, 

Wallace, A. R., Darwinism, New York, 1889 . 

Walker, A., Beauty, Philadelphia, 1864. 

Ward, L. F., Dynamic Sociology, 2 vols.. New York, 1883. 

Westgarth, W., Australia Felix, Edinburg, 1848. 

Westropp, H. M., Prehistoric Phases, London, 1872. 

Whitney, J. D., Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada, Boston, 

1879. 
Wilken, G. A., Das Matriarchat bei den Arabern, Leipzig, 1884. 
Wilkes, C., Exploring Expedition. 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1845. 
Wilson, A., The Abode of Snow, Edinburg, 1875. 
Wilson, J. L., Western Africa, New York, 1856. 
Winchell, A., Preadamites, Chicago, 1880. 
Wood, J. G., The Natural History of Man, 2 vols., London, 1868. 

The Uncivilized Races, by J. G.Wood, is an American edition of 
this book. 
Worsaae, J. J. A., The Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, translated, 

London, 1849. 



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